Learning from Japan: Expos Past, Present and Future

With Angus Lockyer (Rhode Island School of Design) Last summer saw crowds flocking to Expo 2025 on a reclaimed island in Osaka Bay. This may be a surprise, given its absence in the western media and the assumption among many that the age of expos is over. In this talk, we’ll explore why expos are still a going concern. We’ll start with a report from Osaka, then travel back in time, to understand how Japan got there, adopting the form of modern expos from the West in the 19th century, but also adapting it over the course of the 20th as a tool for development. Drawing on a recently-published book, the story will take us from early 18th-century exhibitions — materia medica, exotic animals, animated puppets, and revealed deities — through industry and empire, war and peace, technology and environment. We won’t have time to look at all the 1,300-plus expos Japan has seen in the last 150 years. But we’ll see enough to understand how Japan’s use of them has served its own needs, and provided a model that continues to be adopted beyond its borders.

When 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm on 12 February 2026
Building Pardee School at 121 Bay State Road, Boston MA