Visitors watch the Air Self-Defense Force’s Blue Impulse aerobatics team perform above the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai venue from atop the Grand Ring in Osaka’s Konohana Ward on July 12, 2025. (Mainichi/Tadashi Kako)
More than 3 million of the admission tickets sold for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai are believed to be unused, and are possibly never going to be used by the event’s closing on Oct 13. The Mainichi Shimbun answers some questions readers may have about the situation surrounding the unused tickets.
Question: I heard that there are many leftover Expo admission tickets, but why is that?
Answer: As of Sept. 5, about 20.71 million admission tickets had been sold, but only approximately 17.47 million people had actually visited the venue. Since there is a reservation system in place to avoid overcrowding on public transportation, not everyone can visit on the day they want to. This has led to an increase in unused tickets.
Q: How many unused admission tickets are there?
A: A simple calculation shows a difference of roughly 3.24 million tickets. When you also count multi-entry passes like the “Season Pass” and “Summer Pass,” the total number of unused admission tickets could stand at around 4 million.
Q: What is the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition saying about this issue?
A: Hiroyuki Ishige, secretary general of the association, has explained, “Reservation slots are filling up quickly. There are no refunds for them (the admission tickets), so we strongly recommend booking early.”
Q: Have there been a lot of unused admission tickets at past expos too?
A: At the Expo 2005, Aichi, about 990,000 admission tickets went unused, which was 5.7% of the total sales. The figure for the Osaka Expo may end up far exceeding that number.
(Mainichi)
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