Large crowds are gathering in Osaka in Japan for the 2025 World Expo. Organizers are promoting the event as the first Expo since the end of the pandemic with a futuristic message of hope.

Osaka

The 2025 World Expo in Osaka, Japan, is drawing large crowds with its signature Giant Ring, the world's largest wooden structure, serving as the central hub for national pavilions and exhibits from more than 150 countries and regions. The expo is themed around 'designing a future society for our lives,' promoting unity and optimism at a time when the world faces multiple crises.

Japan's contributions to the expo focus on the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics, with organizers emphasizing that these technologies can help address issues such as labor shortages. The event aims to provide a peaceful and hopeful space for international visitors to imagine and collaborate on a better future, offering a temporary respite from ongoing global conflicts.

2025 World Expo: A futuristic message of hope amid global crises

Holding the record as the world's biggest wooden structure, it's called the Giant Ring and is the signature feature at the Osaka World Expo, acting as the thoroughfare for the millions of visitors over the six months of this event to come and see the national pavilions, the displays and also the exhibits provided by the participants from more than 150 countries and regions. And so all the international pavilions are inside this ring. This means that we want everybody in the world to be united at this expo. The theme of this event is designing a future society for our lives and as with any world expo, the vibe is distinctly upbeat and forward-looking. But it comes at a time when the world appears to be precariously poised with multiple conflicts threatening to escalate out of control and overwhelm us. The question for the world right now would seem to be what is there to be cheery about? Right now the world is going through a lot of problems that we need to talk about and see what we can do as individuals to help. Japan's contributions are particularly futuristic, looking at the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on all of our lives with the help of an Android version of one of the country's leading roboticists to help explain it all. What does the future look like to you? Is it a future of hope or should we be afraid of the future, afraid of technology to come? No, no, we don't need to be afraid of that. Actually, robots and AI are going to be our solutions. You know, especially in Japan, we're going to have a serious problem of a labour shortage. So AI and the robot will solve our future problems. With characteristic Japanese hospitality, the organisers are hoping for a brief period at least to create a peaceful, optimistic space where people can come together and to imagine and create the kind of world they would want to live in, offering some respite from the worldly woes just outside the giant ring. Rob McBride, Al Jazeera, Osaka, Japan.

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