Press Conference by Minister Nishimura (Excerpt)

*Note: This is a provisional translation for reference purposes only.

12:36-12:51
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Press Conference Room, METI Main Building

*This is an excerpt of Minister Nishimura’s remarks from a joint press conference by Minister Nishimura and Ms. Jimi Hanako, Minister for the World Expo 2025.

Opening Remarks

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan

Thank you for coming today.
I would like to talk about a review of the construction cost of the venue for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.
Yesterday, Mr. Yoshimura, Governor of Osaka Prefecture, informed us of his acceptance of the results of scrutiny by the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition. The business community also informed us of its acceptance of the results of scrutiny by the Association, and I have heard that they have already announced their acceptance of the results.
Regarding the current situation of the construction cost, the Government of Japan has carefully examined various aspects of the pricing, including the method of calculating price increases and the details of the rationalization efforts, while benefiting from the knowledge of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and construction design businesses. Regarding the results of the Association’s scrutiny of the construction cost of the Expo venue, which will be revised to 235 billion yen, we accept this as being unavoidable because of the price increase and other factors.
We believe it important for the Association to ensure that another increase does not occur going forward. The Association has set aside 13 billion yen as a reserve fund. However, it should continue to work on cost reduction to avoid easy spending from this fund, while METI will carefully manage the execution of the Association’s budget.
That said, as seen in the discussions in the Diet about new technologies and social systems that envision a future society, the Expo will become a great opportunity for Japan to showcase and convey future technologies, such as advanced air mobility, robots, androids, multilingual translation systems, regenerative medicine, and cutting-edge medical care. As people around the world may take advantage of this opportunity to envision a new society, we would like to make the Expo a place that offers hope for the future to all people, young and old.
In cooperation with Minister Jimi and related ministries and agencies, local governments, and the business community, we will make every effort to steadily advance preparations toward making the Expo a wonderful event.