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Fumiya Takenawa exchanged an 85-year-old ticket from 1940 for two passes into the World Expo 2025 in JapanThe 25-year-old Tokyo man attended the global exhibition in Osaka with his parents, who are Osaka residentsAnyone with tickets from the 1940 Grand International Exposition of Japan can use them for the World Expo 2025
A 25-year-old man attended his first World Expo this year, gaining entrance into the global exhibition in an unconventional way.
Fumiya Takenawa exchanged a ticket — from 1940’s Grand International Exposition of Japan — for two passes into the World Expo 2025 in Osaka on May 5, according to local outlets Mainichi and The Japan Times.
Organizers are allowing anyone with tickets from the 1940 event, which was postponed indefinitely amid Japan’s involvement in World War II.
The World Expo 2025 in Japan.
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“This is my first expo, and I feel part of history,” Takenawa told Mainichi. “Expos help people come together in peace. The person who had this ticket before me waited 85 years, and now their wish finally came true.”
Takenawa, who lives in Tokyo, attended the World Expo during the exhibition’s six-month stint with his parents, who are Osaka residents.
Mainichi reported that a booklet of tickets in 1940 cost 10 yen — “approximately 17,000 yen or roughly $118 in today’s currency.”
Tickets from the 1940 event also were allowed to be used during the 1970 World Expo in Osaka. At the time, 3,000 exchanges occurred, per Mainichi, which added that 35 years later the number dwindled to 100 exchanges during the 2005 Aichi Expo.
The World Expo 2025 in Japan.
David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty
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At those two previous events in Japan and this year’s event, people were allowed to keep their old tickets from 1940 as keepsakes.
The World Expo, which was last held in Dubai in 2020, will next be hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2030. Held every five years, the World Expo is intended to showcase scientific, technological, economic and social progress from all participating nations, not just the host country.
AloJapan.com