This photo provided by an Expo visitor shows people laying down on the lawn in front of the Electric Power Pavilion at around 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 14, 2025.
OSAKA — Analysis of smartphone location data has revealed that thousands of visitors and staff spent the night at the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, venue after many were unable to return home between the night of Aug. 13 and the following morning due to train trouble.
While the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition announced that about 30,000 people remained at the venue as of 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 13, subsequent movements were previously unclear.
The Mainichi Shimbun analyzed data provided by Agoop Corp., a subsidiary of Japanese telecommunications and IT giant SoftBank Corp. The data covered the Expo site on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka’s Konohana Ward, as well as surrounding areas including Osaka Metro Yumeshima Station and bus terminals. Location data from users who had given prior consent was anonymized and aggregated hourly. According to Agoop, the figures closely estimate the actual number of people present.
Around 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 13, Osaka Metro Co. suspended operations on the Chuo Line between Yumeshima Station and Nagata Station, located in the city of Higashiosaka, due to a power outage. At about 10:10 p.m., limited services began between Yumeshima Station and Cosmosquare Station on the opposite shore in Osaka’s Suminoe Ward, but full services did not resume until 5:25 a.m. on Aug. 14.
Location data indicates that more than 10,000 people may have been stranded in the Expo area in the two hours leading up to 2 a.m., Aug. 14. On the previous night, when there were no issues on the Chuo Line, only several hundred people were apparently present during the same time frame.
The expo association began announcing around 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 14 that the New Tram, which connects at Cosmosquare Station, and the Yotsubashi Line were operating through the night.
According to location data, the number of people stranded decreased until just before 3 a.m. but from then onward to before 7 a.m., there was little change. This suggests that those who were able to make it to central Osaka but had no further transportation options chose to stay overnight at the venue. Numerous people waited for services to resume inside pavilions or under the large “Grand Ring” wooden structure, and the phrase “all-night Expo” circulated widely on social media.
(Japanese original by Tatsuya Naganuma, Osaka City News Department)
AloJapan.com