Expo '75 ( ) was a

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ...

held on the island of

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

from July 20, 1975, to January 18, 1976.

History

Expo 1975 commemorative 100 Japanese yen coin

Expo 75 was conceived, in part, to commemorate the American handover of

in 1972. The theme of the exposition was the oceans, and focused on

oceanographic Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of top ...

technologies,

marine life Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, aquatic plant, plants, algae, marine fungi, fungi, marine protists, protists, single-celled marine microorganisms, microorganisms ...

, and oceanic cultures. The motto was “The sea we would like to see" (海－その望ましい未来, ''Umi - sono nozomashii mirai''). The event was located on the western end of the

Motobu Peninsula The is a peninsula in the Yanbaru region of Okinawa Island. It is surrounded by Nago Bay to the east, the Haneda Inland Sea to the north, and the East China Sea to the west.Okinawa Island Guide " Nago City / Motobu Town / Nakijin VillageOkinawa ...

, with a site area of 1,000,000 square metres (including sea areas). Thirty-seven nations participated, along with eight domestic and three international organizations. The keynote speaker on opening day was American author

James A. Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations, set in particular geographic locales ...

. The exposition is the given reason for the construction of the Nakagusuku Hotel.

Expo 75 site

The site was divided into four “Clusters” in which there were pavilions and exhibits:

Fish Cluster

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Pavilion *

Sumitomo The is a Japanese corporate group and '' keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. I ...

Pavilion *

Aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

Dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

Land * Expo Future Car (C.V.S.)

Peoples and History Cluster

* International Pavilion No. 1 * Okinawa Pavilion * EXPO Hall *

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

Pavilion * Oceanic Culture Museum — Audio-visual hall, planetarium and exhibition hall displaying ships, carvings, and other cultural items from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

area. *

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

Pavilion — Ride featuring underwater technologies * International Pavilion No. 2

Science and Technology Cluster

* World Ocean Systems (W.O.S) — Whale-shaped theater. * Mistui Children’s Pavilion * Fuyo Group Pavilion — Featuring oceanic robotics and aerial garden. * U.S.A. Pavilion * Aquapolis — Centerpiece floating city. *

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Pavilion *

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Pavilion *

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Pavilion *

U.S.S.R. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...

Pavilion * Expo New City Car (K.R.T.)

Ships Cluster

* International Pavilion No. 3 * Midori/Icearama Pavilion – Iceberg-shaped building displaying a 3,000-year-old ice core, and a 12,000-year-old ice core. * EXPO Port * Guest House There was also EXPO Port, EXPO Beach, and an amusement park named EXPO Land.

Highlights

The centerpiece of Expo 75 was the Aquapolis a floating city designed by Japanese architect

Kiyonori Kikutake (April 1, 1928 – December 26, 2011) was a prominent Japanese architect known as one of the founders of the Japanese Metabolist group. He was also the tutor and employer of several important Japanese architects, such as Toyo Ito, Shōzō ...

. It was envisioned as a concept of how humans could live harmoniously on the ocean, and a prototype for marine communities. The Aquapolis was constructed at a shipyard in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

, Japan, and then towed to the Expo site. The facility was funded by the Japanese government, and cost 13 billion

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. T ...

. It was thirty-two meters high, and had a one-hundred square meter deck. It was later sold for scrap in 2000. The Expo Transit System featured two types of automated, electric transport vehicles: The "Expo New City Cars" (KRT) ran on a 3.7 km track almost the whole length of the site, there were three stations. The Expo Future Cars (CVS) track was at the north end and connected the Fish Cluster with Expo Land via five stations.

Post-Exposition

After the Expo was over, the site became Okinawa Commemorative National Government Park (国営沖縄記念公園), also known as Ocean Expo Park. Most of the exhibits were removed, although the Aquapolis was retained as an attraction and eventually hosted four million visitors. As years passed, the number of visitors to the Aquapolis declined and it was closed in 1993. In October 2000, the Aquapolis was towed away to

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

to be scrapped. The main tank of the aquarium facility that was opened at Expo was the largest indoor aquarium in the world at that time with a water volume of . After that, we continued to use the Aquarium facility used in Expo'75 and opened it as the Okinawa Ocean Expo Aquarium. The Okinawa Ocean Expo Aquarium was closed in 2002 due to aging and then reopened as Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The Tropical & Subtropical Arboretum were later constructed on the site.

External links

Official website of the BIEPreparing Okinawa for Reversion to Japan: The Okinawa International Ocean Exposition of 1975, the US Military and the Construction State
{{Authority control World's fairs in Japan 1975 in Japan History of Okinawa Prefecture