NOMURA Co.,Ltd. SCENESsustainability

The 2025 Japan International Exposition (Osaka-Kansai Expo), held over six months from April 2025, attracted approximately 25,578,900 general visitors. The venue, surrounded by the iconic large roof ring, was filled with unique pavilions, each showcasing its own vision of the future society. NOMURA Co.,Ltd., Ltd. was in charge of more than 50 projects at the Osaka-Kansai Expo, including 25 pavilions. They approached this large-scale international exposition, the first in 55 years, with an unprecedented level of involvement. How did NOMURA Co.,Ltd. manage to bring together, support, and create more than 50 projects scattered across the vast venue? We spoke with five members of the Osaka-Kansai Expo Promotion Division, who were key players in this effort.

Takekoma Shrine is located about 20 minutes south of Sendai Station on the Tohoku Main Line in Iwanuma City, a city surrounded by lush countryside. Founded in the Heian period, this shrine is one of the most prominent in the country. Since ancient times, it has been counted as one of Japan's three great Inari shrines and has been widely revered as the local guardian deity. However, with the passage of time, the number of visitors has gradually decreased. In order to make it a core for revitalizing the area, local people have come together to take on a project to bring back the vitality of the shrine grounds.

The 2025 Japan International Exposition (Osaka-Kansai Expo) is also a competition of architecture. In a corner of the venue, which is filled with pavilions with unique concept design, there is a small but futuristic wooden building that looks ahead to practical use in the very near future. It is the guidance hall of the demonstration plant [RITE Future Forest] which captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Now, as wooden architecture is attracting global attention from a sustainable perspective, the project team has taken on the challenge of building an architectural structure that is extremely simple, yet difficult precisely because of its simplicity, for the first time in Japan.

The Amami Rabbit Museum Quru Guru, which opened in April 2025, is a conservation and research facility that treats and rehabilitates injured Amami rabbits (hereinafter referred to as "rabbits") with the aim of returning them to the wild. It also uses interactive displays to promote research on the rabbit's ecology, environmental education, and coexistence with humans...

In July 2025, "mirocco," an indoor children's playground planned, designed, and operated by NOMURA Co.,Ltd. Group for approximately 11 years, opened. This is our first time operating a children's playground, despite our extensive experience in creating various spaces. *Project details here: Located on the 22nd Century Hill "Tamari..." owned by Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The "Osaka-Kansai Expo concept design Exhibition" was held at the Osaka Prefectural Enokojima Cultural and Artistic Creation Center (enoco) from October 1st to 19th. This article introduces a discussion from the talk program "See You Again, Expo—What Does an Expo Leave Behind for Society?" held on October 11th. After the opening of the Osaka-Kansai Expo, derivative works by visitors and fans were created on social media...