On October 13, Expo guests in Osaka will eat raclette and take selfies in the Swiss pavilion for the last time. (archive picture)
Keystone
The Expo 2025 world exhibition in Japan closes on October 13. Visitors will have to earn their way into the national pavilions, but will be rewarded with raclette and Heidi at the Swiss pavilion.
Even in mid-September, the heat still weighs heavily over Osaka. The thermometer reads 32 degrees and the air is humid and muggy. Sweat is dripping within minutes. But that doesn’t stop the Japanese from flocking to the Expo 2025 world exhibition.
Right in the middle: the small but beautiful Swiss pavilion. On average, guests wait patiently for over an hour to look for Andy Hug in a mosaic, view and try out Swiss innovation projects and, perhaps most importantly, take a photo with Heidi as a cartoon character.
You have to queue practically everywhere. Half an hour for a sandwich in the convenience store, at least an hour for most of the pavilions, two hours for the Japanese pavilion. From mid-April to the end of September, 26.5 million people make a pilgrimage to the 155-hectare artificial island of Yumeshima off the Japanese metropolis.
“Designing Future Society for Our Lives” is the motto of the exhibition. Tickets go on sale two weeks before the exhibition closes on October 13. At the end, the rush is particularly high once again. Also because the temperatures are slowly cooling down.
Fewer visitors, higher quality
Around one million people will have visited the Swiss Pavilion, around 5500 per day. That is slightly fewer than expected and significantly fewer than the 1.7 million four years ago in Dubai. But: “The quality of the visits is much higher,” explains Béatrice Bleuler, Communications Manager of the Swiss Expo presence in Osaka. “The dwell time is around 20 minutes, and the visitors are attentive, participate and are very interested in our presentations.”
The Confederation is spending CHF 13.2 million on the stand, with sponsors also making a contribution. As the construction costs in Japan are higher than in Dubai and the budget has remained the same, the pavilion is correspondingly smaller.
Small, but fine. The Swiss pavilion consists of a service building and five spherical exhibition rooms. The first thing that awaits visitors is a large, silhouette-like wall panorama showing landscapes, cities, trade and industry. Small details include figures such as the martial artist Andy Hug, who died too young and is still highly revered in Japan, and of course Heidi.
In addition, 25 projects from universities of applied sciences, research institutes and companies from areas such as life sciences, health and nutrition, sustainability, climate, energy, robotics and artificial intelligence are presented, where guests can also get hands-on or answer questions.
Interactivity is met with enthusiasm by the Japanese anyway – especially the opportunity to take a photo with Heidi. The fact that the Japanese once turned her into a comic figure has contributed significantly to the worldwide popularity of Johanna Spyri’s favorite children’s book.
The lightest pavilion in Expo history
It is only logical that the small restaurant on the top floor, for which you have to queue for another hour, is called “Heidi Cafe”. The big hit is the raclette, authentically served with potatoes, onions and gherkins. By mid-September, over 20,100 portions had already been sold.
The Swiss pavilion has received a lot of praise from the locals. Megumi Nakai, who guides foreign media representatives through the site for the Expo organization, is full of praise: “The theme is well thought out and the design is geared towards people. It emphasizes sustainability and originality in an elegant and inspiring way,” she says.
What’s more, the Swiss pavilion is the lightest ever at an Expo. The filigree construction weighs just 400 kilograms. The shell will be reused for furniture after the exhibition, and the functional building will be used again and again by the Presence Switzerland organizational unit, which is part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and is in charge of Switzerland’s presence at the Expo.
In the shadow of Austria
Visually, however, Switzerland stands in the shadow of its direct neighbor in Osaka, Austria – which is no disadvantage in the hot temperatures. 16.5 meters high is the music band made of solid wood delivered from Lower Austria, which depicts the first bars of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”.
Germany is also using the big ladle, but with a completely different approach. It has spent around 50 million euros on its presentation, uses practically only materials from Japan that will remain there after the Expo and manages the balancing act between information and interaction superbly.
The countries’ approaches could hardly be more different. Italy relies on paintings by Caravaggio or Tintoretto and manuscripts by Leonardo da Vinci that are being shown for the first time.
France dispenses with a scientific approach altogether and ignores the official Expo motto. Instead, it is showing suitcases and bags from a luxury brand and evening gowns from a famous couturier, both of which are of course important financial backers. European visitors turn up their noses, but Japanese people like it. “This is what we imagine France to be,” is the tenor.
Applause for Trump
Switzerland has a different, but also very positive image in Japan. Tradition and innovative strength unite the two economically strong nations. “We associate Switzerland with trust, quality, precision and innovation,” says Megumi Nakai. “But also with care and responsibility for the environment and the beauty of nature.”
The pavilions of the USA and Canada, which are trying to score points with beautiful landscapes and cities, also focus on the latter. At the American pavilion, visitors can experience the launch of a rocket up close and are greeted by Donald Trump in his usual grandiloquent manner. “The golden age of America has now dawned,” promises the US President in a video message – and earns spontaneous applause on the English-language tour.
A 20-metre-high wooden “ring” runs around the national pavilions, allowing visitors to walk a good two kilometers around the site – the largest wooden structure in the world, built using old techniques with the help of new technologies. Outside the ring are the event hall, themed pavilions and the huge souvenir store. The queue in front of it means an estimated three-hour wait; Europeans are more likely to order their souvenirs online.
“Our aim is actually to keep waiting times as short as possible,” says Megumi Nakai. “But people queue because they want to see exciting exhibitions. And it’s not unusual in Japan to queue for popular attractions.” In any case, they are very satisfied with the number of visitors and the reactions. The average Japanese is more patient than the average European. It’s a good thing that only around ten percent of Expo visitors come from abroad.
After the visit, the subway is also full, but efficient as usual. And the sticker with the child figure on the carriage door warning people not to pinch their fingers looks remarkably like Heidi.
AloJapan.com