Playback ’05] What Will Happen to Osaka Expo?　This magazine walked through the “dead corpses” of past exposition sites “Traces of Dreams”.

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we introduce “Verification: Japan National Exposition ‘Traces of Dreams’ are so miserable,” which appeared in the April 29, 2005 issue 20 years ago.

On April 13, the Osaka-Kansai Expo finally opened. Before the opening, there were many negative comments about the delays in the construction of the pavilions and the methane gas problem, but in the end, it seems that the event is going to be a success in its own right. Expositions such as the World Expo are held for six months at most. What will happen to the site after the “festival,” in which the national and local governments have made a concerted effort and invested taxpayers’ money, is over? The article is based on interviews conducted in 2005, 20 years ago, at the sites of previous expositions (descriptions in parentheses are quotes from previous articles).

The “maritime city of the future” is just a piece of scrap iron.

Was the exposition really useful to the community? In 2005, this magazine walked around the sites of expositions held during the 35 years from 1970 to 2005 and thoroughly covered them.

Osaka Expo / 1970 Suita City, Osaka Prefecture

The article at the time described the results of the Osaka Expo as follows.

“The total number of visitors to the exposition was approximately 64,220,000 (during the 183 days of the event), an average of more than 350,000 per day, and on Saturday, September 5, a new record was set at 835,832 visitors per day” (Japan World Exposition Commemorative Organization, Sales Planning and Public Relations Division).

The Osaka Expo, a pioneering Japanese exposition, was an event that symbolized Japan’s period of rapid economic growth. The project cost 89.1 billion yen, with revenues exceeding that by 19.4 billion yen to 108.5 billion yen. The 330-hectare site became the Expo Park, which was still bustling with activity in 2005. As a result, it was one of the few expositions that were a success, both in terms of the exposition itself and the use of the site.

Okinawa Ocean Expo / Motobu Town, Okinawa Prefecture, 1975

This exposition was held to commemorate the reversion of Okinawa to mainland Japan, and attracted approximately 3.49 million visitors. The following year, the “National Okinawa Commemorative Exhibition” was held in Motobu-cho, Okinawa Prefecture. The following year, the park opened as the National Okinawa Memorial Park (Ocean Expo Park). Aquapolis, the future marine city that was the centerpiece of the Ocean Expo, continued to operate even after the event closed.

However, the number of visitors, which had exceeded 200,000 a year, dropped by half in the early 1990s, and the park was forced to close. It was forced to close. Aquapolis” was sold to a U.S. company in 2000 for only 14 million yen as “scrap iron. The total construction cost of 13 billion yen was reduced to about 1/1000th of the original cost. The Ocean Expo Park is about 80 km away from Naha, so it was necessary to develop a new tourist resource. In the end, the government invested taxpayer money to open the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in 2002.

Portopia ’81/1981, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture

A pioneer in regional expositions, Portopia ’81 was held on Port Island, a man-made island created by Kobe City. The event attracted approximately 16 million visitors and generated a profit of approximately 6.5 billion yen. The sale of the former site went smoothly.

However, with the bursting of the bubble economy and the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, Port Island rapidly became deserted. Kobe Portopia Land, an amusement park that opened at the same time as the expo, was scheduled to close in March 2006.

Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, 1985

Twenty years have passed since the expo attracted 20.33 million visitors. The site is now surrounded by housing and research facilities, and the Science Expo has had some success. Nevertheless, the planned population has not been reached, and the city has little vitality.

The site of the first venue was transformed into the “Tsukuba Western Industrial Park” and the “Science Expo Commemorative Park. The Expo Center, the second site, remains as a commemorative facility. The world’s largest planetarium and a life-size model of the H-2 rocket were the main attractions of the Expo.

The “end of the road” for regional expositions that tried to “catch the second fish

Although some of these pre-bubble expositions, up until the Science Expo, declined afterwards, they did promote regional development to some extent. This led to the later proliferation of “expositions” throughout the country. In particular, from 1988 to 1989, many municipalities celebrated the 100th anniversary of their municipalities, and the bubble economy buoyed the number of expositions held, resulting in nearly 20. However, contrary to their intentions, most of the regional expositions during this period failed, leaving a lasting legacy for future generations.

Seikan Expo / 1988 Hakodate, Hokkaido; Aomori, Aomori Prefecture

The Aomori Expo was held at two venues, one in Aomori and the other in Hakodate, to commemorate the opening of the Seikan Tunnel. The Aomori site succeeded in attracting visitors, but the Hakodate site had trouble attracting visitors, partly because it clashed with the “World Food Festival” held at the same time in Sapporo, and posted a loss of 500 million yen. The problem was even worse afterwards.

After the festival closed, Hokkaido Shinko (headquartered in Sapporo), a company engaged in the building rental business, purchased the 23-hectare privately owned land on the site of the former venue and launched a plan to build a leisure complex called “Hakodate Marine Park. The project was a success up to this point, but was scrapped when the bubble economy burst and the 1993 Hokkaido Nansei Oki Earthquake struck. In May 2004, the city purchased the abandoned site for 100 million yen. In the end, the site remained unutilized for 17 years.

The remaining buildings were left in ruins, and the city was expected to spend another 1 billion yen to dismantle them and restore the quay wall. It was truly an exposition that left a huge bill.

Design Expo / 1989 Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture

This event was planned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Nagoya’s municipal organization and to replace the Olympics, which had failed to attract visitors. Initially, the exposition association announced a surplus of 210 million yen. However, in 1990, the following year, it was discovered that the city had “hidden the deficit” by purchasing facilities and equipment such as stages, benches, and trash cans at an exorbitant price of approximately 1.036 billion yen to balance the books. This was a case that exposed the laxity of the exposition’s revenue and expenditures.

The Nagoya International Conference Center, the venue of the Shirotori Expo, still retains the atmosphere of those days. At the time of the exposition, only Building No. 1 (Century Hall) was in use, but after the event closed, it was expanded to Building No. 4, including a reception hall, at a total cost of approximately 40 billion yen.

However, the facilities were not very popular due to their inconvenient location. However, the facilities were not very popular due to their inconvenient location, and at the time of our interview in 2005, the exhibition was still in the red.

Yokohama Expo / 1989 Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture

Also known as “YES ’89. Held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city of Yokohama’s municipal organization and the 130th anniversary of the opening of the port. It was largely a promotion of MM21 (Yokohama Minato Mirai 21), a land readjustment project in the bay area. The number of visitors exceeded the target of 12.5 million. However, it is said that this was the result of the large scale mobilization measures such as free invitations due to the slow growth of visitors, and the admission revenue was 400 million yen less than expected.

With the bursting of the bubble economy, the development of MM21 lost momentum. In fact, 16 years after the expo, the land readjustment project has not been completed, and sales of the land are not going well.

At the time of our interview in 2005, the Yokohama Museum of Art, which was one of the pavilions, was surrounded by vacant lots. Thus, the sites of former expositions had become like a fairgrounds of misadministration across the board.

The Lie of “Regional Revitalization through Expositions

With the bursting of the bubble economy, the enthusiasm for regional expositions rapidly cooled. 1996’s “Urban Expo” in Tokyo’s Rinkai Fukutoshin was a larger-scale event than the Aichi Expo, with a cost of 200 billion yen and expected attendance of 20 million people, but it was canceled without warning.

Not only expositions in Japan, but many former sites of overseas expositions are said to be in ruins. The result of choosing an inaccessible location to secure a large-scale venue is that the site is no longer of any use afterwards. It is a lie to say that an expo will revitalize a community, and even if it does, it will only be temporary.” As was discussed for the Tokyo Olympics in 2009, in recent years it has become necessary to plan in light of how to utilize the legacy (legacy) after the closing of a large-scale event.

This article was written at the time of the opening of the Aichi Expo in 2005, and there were concerns about the use of the site of the Aichi Expo, which was said to be sure to lose money. In the end, however, the Aichi Expo was a success, with attendance far exceeding its goals and turning a profit. The use of the former site was also a good thing, as the layout was designed to take advantage of the natural surroundings while refraining from large-scale development. Nagakute, which was one of the venues of the Expo, has become a top-ranked town in the “Town to Live in” ranking, thanks to the development along the “Linimo” line, which was built to provide access to the Expo site. Ghibli Park was also opened in the former Expo ’70 Aichi Commemorative Park.

The former site of the Osaka-Kansai Expo will be used as “an overwhelmingly extraordinary space that inherits the legacy of the Expo” (Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura) and will be used for an integrated resort (IR) that will include a circuit, luxury hotels, and casinos. We hope that this will not become a “negative legacy.