2025 Expo Osaka: Expo Fails to Achieve Pledge of Line-Free Event; Smartphone Data Shows Particular Crowding at East Gate
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Visitors wait in long lines in front of the French pavilion, left, and the U.S. pavilion, center, at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo in Konohana Ward, Osaka, on May 13.
OSAKA — One month after the opening of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, lines at the entrance gate and within the venue are contradicting the organizers' pledge of a 'line-free' event.
Many visitors enter through the East Gate, which is connected to the Osaka Metro Yumeshima Station. Inside the Expo, long lines can be seen in front of some pavilions.
The Yomiuri Shimbun analyzed the flow of people in and around the Expo based on location data from smartphones collected by research company X-Locations Inc.
The Expo's opening day on April 13 recorded 124,339 visitors. Analysis showed that the number of people gathered at the venue's East Gate began increasing at around 6 a.m. and was estimated to exceed 10,000 between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Even after the Expo opened at 9 a.m., the number of people at the East Gate continued to increase. It tripled between noon and 1 p.m. from the level when the gate opened.
The congestion at the East Gate was seen as problematic just after the Expo started but it has since eased, mainly thanks to the experience staff members acquired in addressing the issue.
However, the daily flow of people at the East Gate is more than double that at the West Gate, where shuttle bus stops are located. Visitors' tendency to crowd around the East Gate when the venue opens and closes every day has not changed.
The movement of people has also been concentrated in specific places within the venue.
Analysis on data from May 4 showed that visitors were concentrated at the three pavilions of the United States, France and Italy just after the venue opened. Visitors can enter these pavilions without prior reservations, so it seems many visitors go straight there once the Expo opens.
At 7 p.m., many visitors were gathered in the Water Plaza in the south of the venue to see a show on the water. During this period of time, the number of people around the pavilions tends to be smaller. If visitors want to enter specific pavilions, it may be good to do so during that time frame.
Aichi Pref. provides third-most visitors
The Yomiuri also analyzed where visitors are from, focusing on people who passed through both the East and West gates from the opening day through the end of April.
Nearly half the visitors, at 45.4%, were believed to be from Osaka Prefecture and 14.1% from Hyogo Prefecture. Unexpectedly, people deemed to be from Aichi Prefecture were the third-largest group at 6.5%, followed by 5.6% from Tokyo and 4.9% from Kyoto Prefecture.
'As our prefecture was the venue of the 2025 Aichi Expo, many people may have positive feelings about world expositions,' an official of the Aichi prefectural government's tourism promotion division said.
The location data were statistically processed by X-Locations after being collected from smartphone apps, to ascertain people's movements and the number of visitors in each area of the Expo.
The location information was collected with the app users' consent and the data was made anonymous to prevent people from being identified. Places of residence were inferred from locations where people usually were located. The location information does not include that of children who do not possess their own smartphones.
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