September 26, 2023

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on September 25 said that the 2025 Osaka World Exhibition should be cancelled when asked for a comment on a recent estimate indicating that the cost of building venues for the Expo will rise to about 230 billion yen, up 100 billion yen from the initial estimate.

At a press conference in the Diet building, Koike pointed out that Expo-related infrastructure costs to build railways and roads to the Expo site on Yumeshima artificial island in Osaka Bay are ballooning, and said that the total costs of hosting the Expo will reportedly reach one trillion yen.

Pointing out that as approved by the Kishida Cabinet, the construction cost will be shouldered equally by the central government, the Osaka prefectural and city governments, and the business community, Koike said, “The money-eating event should be cancelled without delay in order not to impose heavier burdens not only on Osaka citizens but also on all the population of Japan.”

In addition, Koike referred to a news report that the Japan Association for the 2025 World Expo, for the purpose of dealing with the delays in overseas pavilion construction, asked the central government for an overtime cap exemption for Expo construction workers. He said, “Holding the World Expo at the cost of construction workers’ health and safety goes against the Osaka Expo’s main theme, ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives’,” and demanded the cancellation of the Expo.

Past related articles:
> JCP in Osaka calls for cancellation of cost-prohibitive 2025 World Expo [August 31, 2023]