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Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has expressed hope that this year’s Osaka Expo will help restore global unity in a divided world. Yet, while that grand goal is unlikely to be fully realized, the big event is having a positive impact on international relations.
Building from the legacy of Dubai’s Expo 2020, the first ever in the Middle East, this year’s Osaka event is proving to be a diplomatic magnet, with more than 100 foreign dignitaries expected to pass through by the end of the event. Moreover, almost 160 nations and regions are taking part.
At the opening ceremony, Ishiba said that “the world, having overcome the coronavirus pandemic, is now threatened by an array of divisions. At a time like this, it is extremely meaningful that people from around the world gather here and discuss the theme of life and experience cutting-edge technology, diverse ideas, and culture. I sincerely hope the world will unite again through interactions among countries and visitors in and outside this ring.”
This vision may appear grandiose, but in fact is largely in keeping with a long tradition of expos which, building from Dubai 2020, date back to at least the 1851 UK Great Exhibition planned by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert. That big UK event was designed to symbolize world peace, unity, and the progression of modernity, much like this year’s expo.
Moreover, just as the 1851 event was designed to showcase Britain as an industrial leader, the Osaka Expo has the potential to do the same for Japan. Osaka’s big event takes place around a half century after the city last held the expo amid much business and consumer interest.
While the exact economic impact of the event may not be clear for months, Japan’s second city is already undergoing a significant transformation. An artificial island almost 400 hectares in size has been created in Osaka Bay for visitors.
As impressive as the Osaka Bay development is, the biggest change to the physical character of the city is in the center, with redevelopment of the Osaka Station area into the so-called Grand Green Osaka. There has also been an influx of upmarket hotels, including the Canopy by Hilton Osaka Umeda, the Hotel Hankyu Gran Respire Osaka, and the Waldorf Astoria Osaka.

Boosting country branding is a common ambition in an overcrowded global information marketplace.

Andrew Hammond

For over a century, one of the key features of expos has been highlighting a country’s cutting-edge innovation. In earlier eras, inventions such as the telephone were showcased.
Fast forward to 2025, and the theme of Osaka’s event is “designing the future of our lives.” One big feature will be the showcasing of flying car services. The Osakako Vertiport will display the latest vehicles, which will be flown to nearby sites.
At least two major questions arise from the ambitions of expo hosts. First, can a country’s reputation be enhanced in the same way as a corporation, or other organization, might do by hosting them, And, second, can this have a significant, sustainable national economic impact.
On the first question, competition for the attention of stakeholders such as investors and tourists is intensifying, and national reputation is, therefore, a prized asset or a major liability, with a direct effect on future political, economic, and social fortunes. Boosting country branding is a common ambition in what is an overcrowded global information marketplace, and a number of countries have successfully delivered big events to positively differentiate themselves to the world.
One standout success story is the 1992 Seville Expo, which aligned with Spain’s hosting of the Barcelona Summer Olympics the same year. For good reason, 1992 has been described as the “year of Spain,” a time when “Spanish soft power conquered the world.”
Yet, many nations fail to fully capitalize, reputationally or economically, on hosting the expo or major sporting events such as the Olympics. Moreover, on the economic front, numerous studies have indicated that legacy-driven big event growth is sometimes over-hyped.
This was shown most recently by Japan’s hosting of the 2020 Summer Olympics, an event that was blighted by the global pandemic and eventually delayed until 2021.
In 2018, when Osaka was announced as the host of the expo in 2025, delight was expressed in Japan. Then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the country would “achieve a magnificent expo in Osaka that would give dreams and surprises to everyone in the world,” and that it would be “a golden opportunity to promote the fascinating charms of Japan to the rest of the world.”
Beyond these warm words, however, to maximize the prospects of benefiting reputationally, Japan must pursue a concerted reputation and economic strategy that aligns all key national stakeholders — across the public, private, and third sectors — around a single, coherent vision for its country brand to emphasize traits such as a respected international leader, technological innovation, and cultural powerhouse. This exercise should not just be the preserve of tourism agencies, let alone government, but must involve the private and third sectors, too.
Spain in 1992 showed how this can be done effectively by connecting the expo and Olympic events into a narrative about a wider transformation in the country at the time. This included the nation’s political and economic transformation following its transition to democracy after the death of previous ruler Francisco Franco, including the accession to the European Economic Community, now the EU, in 1986.
This underlines the power of even relatively simple, unified country brand visions. Amid the frenzy of this year’s expo, the long-term economic opportunities of the event should not be sidelined. A key part of this must be connecting Osaka’s hosting to a wider story that showcases Japan’s strengths so as to increase favorability of international perceptions of the country, politically, economically, and socially.

• Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.