Located in the northern part of Osaka Bay, Yumeshima is an artificial island that until now has been used as a waste disposal and garbage landfill site. This year, it will become the site of the 2025 World Expo. They are also developing an integrated resort (IR) that is going to include a casino. Until now, Yumeshima was branded as a “negative legacy” because for many years no development had taken place there. Osaka Ishin no Kai, a local political party with influence in the area, devised the Expo as one of the strategies to revitalize the man-made island.
The total area of 390 hectares was originally divided into four sections:
Section 1 being the final disposal site for Osaka City incineration ash.
Sections 2 and 3 being landfill sites for dredged soil and construction waste, which are similar to industrial waste.
Section 4 used to be an industrial waste disposal site like Sections 2 and 3, but it has already been filled in and sold as a container yard used as an import/export base for Osaka’s industry.
In particular, Section 3, the planned site for the IR/casino complex, where work is being rushed to be completed, is notorious for industrial waste.
Since landfilling began in 1977 before the Soil Contamination Countermeasures Act was enacted, it is only natural to think that contaminated and foreign objects were buried there as well.
In December 2021, the mayor of Osaka announced the expenditure of 79 billion yen to make the artificial island safe from both soil contamination and liquefaction (in case of an earthquake) and ensure that the site can be adequately developed as an IR business site. However, expenses for building the venue have nearly doubled from the initial estimate to 235 billion yen. Among other things, opponents have questioned the rationale of spending about 200 million yen to create a single lavatory complex and 34.4 billion yen to build the Grand Roof, a gargantuan wooden structure that is 2 kilometers in circumference and has a building area of approximately 60,000 square meters and an inner diameter of 615 meters.
As serious problems surrounding the Expo have emerged, including sloppy development and financial plans and a gas explosion at the construction site which have caused great anger and anxiety among the public, different people and groups have been calling for cancelling the event while the organizers are desperately trying to develop the land in time for the opening date.
One of the Expo’s more vocal opponents is Nishitani Fumikazu, a freelance journalist (coincidentally, he previously worked at Suita City Hall, the location of the 1970 Expo) who has a popular YouTube channel called Radio on the Street and in 2023 published Expo Collapse: How Is This a “Painful Reform”?
Nishitani calls the event a “disposable Expo” that despite its slogans, is anti-SDGs and goes completely against the theme of "Designing a future society where life shines". “It is filled with garbage and industrial waste containing hazardous substances,” he says. “Moreover, it is an artificial island located in the ocean, exposed to typhoons and storms, and as such, is unlikely to withstand liquefaction or tsunami in the event of a major earthquake. The island is mainly made of soft ground. Basically, it’s like tofu.
“There are only one bridge and one tunnel for evacuation, so chaos will likely ensue in case of a major accident, and there is no water or sewerage system. How ‘life shines’ in such a place is beyond my imagination.”
The Association for Creating a Bright Democratic Osaka Prefectural Government (Akari-kai) is also spreading information to the public and organizing a movement to cancel the Expo as an unsafe event. At a meeting held last March, Fujinaga Nobuyo, a representative of the Osaka Citizens Network, gave a lecture on the dangers of Yumeshima. According to Fujinaga, in Section 1, where the gas explosion occurred, methane gas continues to be released through a vent pipe. The pipe was installed in 2022, but its gas emissions are said to exceed the lower explosive concentration limit. "The danger posed by methane gas is real,” Fujinaga said, “and we must let the world know about this.” According to Fujinaga, methane, a highly flammable gas, has been found even in Section 2, the main site of the Expo, and 3,000 bags filled with highly toxic PCBs have been buried in the area that will become the parking lot of Section 1. "The people working on the Expo construction site and the children who will be taken there are in danger,” she said. “No matter how you look at it, we have no choice but to cancel the Expo."
Regarding the issue of the methane explosion on March 28, former House of Councilors member Tatsumi Kotaro (head of the Communist Party's Osaka Prefecture Casino Expo Project Team) points out that the Expo Association may not have taken the necessary measures to avoid such accidents. "Not only District 1 but District 2 (the planned site of the Expo) and 3 (the planned site of the casino) are also at risk,” he says. “It is reckless to hold a large-scale event in a place like that."
Expo 2025 will include Green World, a key initiative to promote a sustainable future by emphasizing decarbonization, resource recycling, and environmental conservation. The goal is to create a carbon-neutral event and promote a circular economy, ensuring that the Expo has a minimal environmental impact. The Green World initiative aims to showcase future society through next-generation technologies and hands-on exhibitions highlighting sustainable living.
However, and quite ironically, at a press conference held last year by the Expo Association, it was revealed that there had been 76 instances in which gas concentration at the Expo site not only exceeded the limits posed by the Industrial Safety and Health Act but reached such a level that construction had to be temporarily halted. As for the explosion, it was reportedly caused by concrete being poured over the area and creating pressure over the methane that was trying to rise from underneath.
Fujinaga also points out that a national infectious disease research institute has sounded a yellow light on public health in terms of preventing viral and bacterial infections, pest-related epidemics, and food poisoning at the Expo, which will be held over the middle of summer. “Considering that Osaka City's hospitals and health centers have been restructured to the extreme by [former governor of Osaka Prefecture and mayor of Osaka City] Hashimoto Toru,” Fujinaga says, “it is extremely dangerous, and it is obvious that it is not a place where children as young as four can be taken on an excursion. I would like to somehow force the cancellation of this festival of black humor that has been so heavily invested in.”
Health hazards are not the only problems. Another point of contention is the IR complex and the casino in particular, and gambling addiction is not the only issue. Last year, 85 citizens requested a resident audit against Osaka City, seeking to stop the conclusion of a lease agreement with an IR operator, claiming that the rent for city-owned land for an IR including a casino is unreasonably low and illegal and only justified by the fact that Osaka Prefecture and City are aiming to attract a casino operator. They pointed out that the city's instructions to "not take into consideration" the impact of the IR project on land prices in calculating the rent were illegal. On the other hand, the city claims that the rent was set appropriately.
The proposed site for the IR is 49 hectares of city-owned land on Yumeshima. Part of it is adjacent to Yumeshima Station (tentative name), which is planned to be newly built on the extension of the Osaka Metro Chuo Line. The city plans to lease the land for 35 years to a consortium composed of the American developer MGM Resorts International and Japanese firm Orix, with the rent set at approximately 2.5 billion yen per year.
The rent was based on an appraisal report that the city requested from four real estate appraisers in 2019. Appraisals are usually based on the most effective use envisaged for the land. According to the audit request, while the City of Osaka requested appraisals to calculate the rent for the IR site, it instructed the four companies to not take into account the impact of the IR project.
Furthermore, as mentioned above, the City has covered land improvement costs of approximately 79 billion yen including the construction of a high-rise hotel on the IR site. However, the citizens who requested the audit pointed out that an appraisal that does not include the hotel is unfair.
Fujinaga has presented a lawsuit seeking the revocation of the Osaka casino certification. She is also disappointed by the relative lack of coverage by the local media outlets and is counting on foreign reporters to expose the real conditions under which the Expo will be held and the complicity between the Ishin Party and the Kansai business community.
“TV stations and [entertainment production company] Yoshimoto Kogyo are intimately involved,” she says. “Yoshimoto has vested interests in gambling halls, so the media are not reporting on it as much as they should.”
In the meantime, the Expo is not generating much buzz. A survey conducted by the Asahi Shimbun daily in January 2024 among 2,859 readers revealed that 81% of respondents had no intention of attending the event. Even among Osaka residents, only 38% expressed interest in going, while 62% remained uninterested.
The high cost of admission is cited as the primary reason for disinterest. One-day tickets purchased during the Expo period cost 7,500 yen for those aged 18 and over, 4,200 yen for children aged 12 and over and 1,800 yen for children aged 4 and over. These prices are considered a deterrent for many families.
A good friend of mine was hired in 1970 to work at the American pavilion. That Expo sounded like a worthwhile opportunity to showcase Japan and for Japanese people to see firsthand what other countries and cultures had to offer.
The current Expo sounds like a big, old-fashioned boondoggle. Especially the casino.
Sounds like the shonky development in Australia. Where do these people get the template?!