Same-day tickets to be introduced for Osaka Expo: Ishiba
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday that same-day admission tickets will be introduced for the 2025 World Exposition to be held in Osaka.
This was announced at a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo with Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai, who heads the National Governors' Association, and others.
"We hope to actively promote the point that people can still enjoy the Expo without an advance ticket, as well as the simplified ticket purchasing procedure," Ishiba said.
Also on Tuesday, the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition said that the same-day tickets will be sold every day in front of the entrance gate.
The association also said that the "season" pass, priced at ¥30,000 for adults, which allows unlimited entry during the Expo period from April to October, will be discounted to ¥24,000 for those who visit between April and May.
Previously, the association planned to admit holders of this pass to the Expo venue only from 11 a.m. The association now said that this limit was abolished.
These measures were decided in response to sluggish sales of advance tickets.
The number of advance tickets sold stood at 7.87 million as of Wednesday, only 56.2% of the sales target of 14 million tickets.
The 2025 Expo association had made it a basic principle for all visitors to buy advance tickets online and book their time slots in order to avoid congestion. But many complained that this procedure was too complicated.
In a meeting with Ishiba on Feb. 5, Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura suggested improving the ticket selling system. Ishiba hinted at introducing same-day tickets.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
13 minutes ago
- Japan Times
Taiyo to decide on delisting as early as August, president says
Taiyo Holdings will decide on proposals from several private equity funds — and whether to delist — after a shareholder meeting this month in which its president, Eiji Sato, is likely to face a vote on his ouster. The Japanese chemical manufacturer will decide on the proposals in August at the earliest, Sato said in an interview. The company is reviewing formal proposals for capital alliances, including privatization, from fewer than five private equity funds, and a special committee is examining whether the acquisition terms are fair, he said. Taiyo is set to hold its annual shareholders' meeting on Saturday, and the conference may become heated. DIC, the company's largest stockholder and capital alliance partner, has said it intends to vote against the reappointment of Sato as a board director. It cited insufficient responses from Sato and the board of directors to various proposals, including delisting, as the reason behind its decision. "We were not informed of DIC's announcement and were surprised,' Sato said. He said that the formal privatization proposals were received in February and were presented in a timely manner. It was reported in May that Taiyo received acquisition proposals from U.S. investment fund KKR and the Japan Industrial Promotion Organization. At least one of the plans was to delist the company through a tender offer at a premium. Taiyo's market value has climbed about ¥50 billion ($347 million) to around ¥350 billion in about two weeks since the plans were reported. The proposals come as Japanese companies face pressure from the Tokyo Stock Exchange to boost their value to stay listed. DIC, which holds about 19% of Taiyo's shares, isn't alone in seeking Sato's departure at the shareholders' meeting. Oasis Management, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund with about an 11% stake, is also opposed to his reappointment, citing governance issues. Taiyo's founding family, which is estimated to hold about 10% of the shares, has also solidified its intention to vote against Sato staying on as a director, according to a report by Tokyo Shoko Research. In effect, this is an unusual situation in which the top three shareholders have all expressed opposition to the president staying on. Sato said that while he expects more acquisition proposals in the future, Taiyo will suspend consideration of any new proposals until after the shareholders' meeting due to the current situation.
Japan Times
28 minutes ago
- Japan Times
Tokyo teams up with bathhouses to boost voter turnout for assembly election
Local authorities in Tokyo are ramping up efforts to raise voter turnout ahead of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on Sunday, rolling out a series of public awareness campaigns aimed particularly at younger voters. Initiatives include partnering with public bathhouses amid Japan's ongoing sauna boom and collaborating with high school students to create promotional materials. According to the Tokyo's election commission, voter turnout in the previous election in 2021 stood at 42.39%. While over 50% of voters in their 60s and older turned out, rates were much lower among younger demographics, with only 25.8% of voters in their 20s and 34.22% in their 30s casting ballots — highlighting a persistent gap in political engagement between age groups. In an attempt to reach younger voters, the commission is collaborating with the hot spring website Nifty Onsen and the Tokyo Sento Association to raise voter awareness at 61 bathhouses across the capital. Posters are being displayed during the campaign period, and several bathhouses are naming one of their baths 'election bath' to make people more aware of the upcoming election. 'With the sauna trend, we can appeal to a wider, younger audience,' a Tokyo metropolitan government official said. 'We hope people will take a moment of relaxation to reflect on politics and the upcoming election.' In Tokyo's Nerima Ward, local high school students helped design election-themed pocket tissue packs to be handed out at train stations and other public locations. The Nerima municipality is the only one of Tokyo's 23 wards with a dedicated election outreach team. Its official X social media account is updated frequently. 'We aim to post at least once a day,' a Nerima government official said. In the city of Machida in western Tokyo, officials have redesigned the birthday cards that the local government sends to residents turning 18 to inform them of their eligibility to vote as Japanese citizens. The new designs were developed with input from young people and aim to make the cards feel less stiff and formal and more accessible. 'We hope their first voting experience will lead them to vote again,' a city official said. Translated by The Japan Times
NHK
43 minutes ago
- NHK
US startup to launch AI healthcare assistant in Japan
A US startup has announced plans to roll out an AI assistant in Japan to help ease the country's shortage of medical workers. Hippocratic AI CEO Munjal Shah said he hopes the AI will eventually be able to detect health risks faced by elderly patients and alert human staff. He added the program will be especially useful in Japan, which has one of the highest proportions of people over 65 in the world. "It's a place where you're going to need a lot more healthcare workers and the only real answer to this is going to be AI," said Shah. The AI assistant currently provides patients with non-diagnostic support. It can make appointments, monitor their condition after hospitalization, and manage medication. The company says the program is already being used by 2.5 million people around the world. Hippocratic AI entered a partnership with a Tokyo-based venture firm in May, with plans to make the AI assistant available in Japan later this year.
