SUITA, OSAKA PREF. –
A ceremony was held on Saturday to mark the relocation of two statues of Myaku-Myaku, the official mascot of the 2025 World Exposition, near the Tower of the Sun monument, the symbol of the 1970 expo.
The Myaku-Myaku statues are now in the 1970 Expo commemorative park in the city of Suita, Osaka Prefecture.
“It seems that Myaku-Myaku and the Tower of the Sun are connected by the (expo) baton,” Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said at the ceremony.
During the 2025 expo’s 184-day period from April 13 to Oct. 13, the Myaku-Myaku statues welcomed visitors near the venue’s gates on the artificial island of Yumeshima in the city of Osaka.
Saturday’s ceremony was attended by about 400 residents of the prefecture who were picked from over 40,000 people by lottery.
The two red, white and blue statues will tour the prefecture from June. Yoshimura indicated that they would eventually return to the 2025 expo site.
AloJapan.com