Expo 2025 Osaka closes, showcasing a vision for a greener future

The six-month Expo 2025 Osaka officially concluded on October 13th. According to the Expo Association, a total of 158 countries and regions, along with seven international organizations, participated in the event, which drew more than 25 million visitors. The Expo’s diverse range of exhibits left a lasting impression on many Expo enthusiasts throughout the half-year duration.

On the eve of the Expo’s closing, the China Pavilion received the gold award for exhibition design among large self-built pavilions from the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) during the official awards ceremony.

Dimitri Kerkentzes, secretary general of the Bureau International des Expositions, said the China Pavilion closely aligned with the Expo's theme, noting that it not only showcases China's long history and culture but also its vision and responsibility to contribute development solutions for the future.

At this year’s Expo, the China Pavilion showcased both the traditional ecological knowledge developed over 5,000 years of Chinese civilization and the achievements of green development in the modern era. With its detailed and layered presentation, the Pavilion communicated a strong vision of building a sustainable community. The architectural centerpiece, inspired by bamboo slips—a symbol of ancient Chinese culture and an eco-friendly building material—perfectly reflected the Pavilion’s environmentally conscious design philosophy. The China Pavilion welcomed over 1.9 million visitors in total, with daily attendance exceeding 10,000.

The exhibit inside the China Pavilion was centered on the theme “A Vision of Sustainability: Inheriting and Advancing Ecological Civilization.” Tied closely to the Expo’s main message, the display used a “Past-Present-Future” narrative to show how China’s ancient philosophy of living in harmony with nature continues to influence its modern efforts in environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, and building a “Beautiful China” over the past decade.

The theme of this year’s Expo, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” encouraged each pavilion to explore and reinterpret the concept of sustainability from various viewpoints. Among these, wood emerged as one of the most prominent and frequently used elements.

As the Expo’s most iconic landmark, the Grand Ring, a stunning blend of sustainability and functional design, has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest timber structure in the world. Designed to guide visitors throughout the site, it provided shaded walkways below and panoramic views from above, where guests could enjoy sweeping vistas of the Expo grounds, including fireworks and drone displays at night.

The Japan Pavilion, the host country’s main exhibition hall, was built using cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels. Its design aimed to enable easy disassembly and reuse in buildings throughout Japan after the Expo concluded.

Visually embodying the cycles of transformation, the pavilion’s exhibition told an artistic story of an energy cycle that began with microorganisms and flowed through farm, factory, and plant zones, illustrating the renewal of energy in a poetic way. Notably, the Japan Pavilion also featured a renewable energy plant that broke down food waste from the Expo site using microorganisms, converting it into water for the basin and biogas. The biogas was then used to generate electricity for the Japan Pavilion.

Along with the unique national pavilions, eight themed pavilions, each led by well-known Japanese experts in architecture, design, music, and film, explored different facets of life. Through engaging, interactive experiences, they encouraged visitors to think about the complex connections between humanity, art, nature, and technology.

After this year’s Expo ends, the next World Expo will be held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, five years from now. A handover ceremony occurred during the Expo’s closing event.

(Cover: Crowds surge on the Final Day of Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. October 13, 2025. / CGTN)