Osaka Expo's slow ticket sales raise fears of another financial flop for Japan
This Week in Asia Economics Published: 9:30am, 7 Feb 2025 The coming World Expo in Osaka, touted as a grand exhibition of futuristic culture, has struggled to attract visitors, with poor ticket sales highlighting broader issues of cost overruns, construction delays and waning public enthusiasm for large-scale events in ageing Japan .
Advance ticket sales for the expo have been so disappointing that the Japanese government is considering scrapping its policy of requiring them to be bought in advance and allowing visitors to pay to enter on the same day. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said authorities were looking into the matter after a meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday with Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, who called for greater assistance from the national government to promote the mammoth event.
Tickets went on sale in November 2023 and organisers had anticipated they would be able to sell 14 million tickets for the six-month long event, which opens on April 13. But as of January 29, organisers admitted they had sold just 7.67 million tickets.
The slow uptake has stoked fears that if visitor numbers fail to meet expectations, taxpayers may once again be forced to bear the burden like they did with 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which lost out on the anticipated windfall from foreign visitors because of the coronavirus pandemic.
'Before Osaka was nominated as the host city, the governor was reassuring everyone about the cost and that everything would go smoothly,' said Morinosuke Kawaguchi, a technology analyst and consultant who was previously a lecturer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
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