21st Century World Exposition.

(From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI))

Byline: Nakamura Toshio

On June 8, 1994, the General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) adopted a resolution on the ideal form of World Expos for the 21st century. There it was determined that "As a fundamental condition, future World Expositions will be required to reflect the value that respect for nature and the environment is of the utmost importance for mankind."

EXPO 2005 will be the first international exposition of the 21st century. The theme, "Nature's Wisdom," has been chosen for the event, and the concept for the event is "Applying nature's wisdom for sustainable development." Art of Life, Eco-communities and Nature's Matrix are the three sub-themes that will be showcased during the Expo.

Traditionally, World Expos have been based on gathering rare and interesting things from around the world and putting them on display. However, we plan to take the "displays" to the next level through three fundamentals; (1) Process-Driven Construction Despite a temporary operation of six months, for EXPO 2005, we carried out an environmental assessment of unprecedented scope for an international exposition and worked to determine the ideal form for such an exposition in light of the coexistence of mankind and nature. The assessment enabled us to effectively handle a variety of issues that have arisen during the preparations for the EXPO. Among them, the selection of the size and location of the event site was the most difficult problem. In 1998, 540ha were planned to be used for the event in the Kaisho Forest of Seto city; however, there was a dramatic change in the final proposal. The area for the Kaisho Forest site was reduced to 15ha, with an additional 158ha appropriated for the Aichi Youth Park in adjacent Nagakute town for a total area of 173ha. The assessment also included studies on precious wildlife, and roughly half of the event sites have been left in their natural state.

(2) Pan-Global Viewpoint When looking ahead at the 21st century, we face significant problems such as the depletion of fossil fuels and global warming. We are placing our hopes on clean and efficient electrical generating systems and fuel cell electrical generation technologies as possible solutions to these ...