2025 Expo Osaka: Japan Expo Mascot Toys Donated to Baltic Pavilion After Theft; Donated Items Put on Display Near Pavilion Entrance
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Donated Myaku-Myaku stuffed toys are seen on display near the entrance of the Baltic Pavilion at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo on Saturday.
OSAKA — Stuffed toys of Myaku-Myaku, the official character of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, and other items have been donated to the Baltic Pavilion from visitors since the theft of the character toy from near the entrance of the Latvia-Lithuania joint pavilion.
Lithuanian Ambassador to Japan Aurelijus Zykas posted on X on Friday that the plush toy had suddenly disappeared.
Thirteen items, including Myaku-Myaku plush toys, were donated as of 8 p.m. Saturday. Zykas posted a message on X, saying, 'Myaku-Myakus are arriving at the Baltic Pavilion. I sincerely thank all the people in Japan who have shown their goodwill.'
According to the pavilion, a staff member noticed the stuffed toy had disappeared at around noon Tuesday. Security camera footage showed two visitors moving around the pavilion after one put the stuffed toy into a bag.
After Zykas posted the footage on X on Friday, visitors begun bringing stuffed toys to the pavilion. The donations have been put on display near where the original toy was stolen.
On Saturday, a 47-year-old company employee from Nara City donated a Myaku-Myaku plush toy.
'I didn't want the people at the Baltic Pavilion, who came all the way to Japan, to finish their experience at the expo with a bad memory,' he said. 'I hope good will spreads.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yomiuri Shimbun
a day ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
13 Japanese Detained By Malaysian Authorities Over Fraud; Accused of Impersonating Japan Police to Fool Victims
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo Buildings used as bases by fraudsters are seen in eastern Myanmar in January. BANGKOK — Thirteen Japanese nationals were detained in May by Malaysian police during raids on two facilities operated by fraudsters in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. According to Malaysian police, a total of 19 suspects, including Japanese and Chinese nationals, were detained in the raids. The suspects allegedly pretended to be officers with the Osaka prefectural police, sending online messages to targets in Japan and getting them to transfer cash. They are believed to have used this method and other similar scams for about two months. Many personal computers and mobile phones were found in the raids, local police said, as were clothes resembling the uniforms of Japanese police officers and script-like documents. There has been a series of cases in Southeast Asia in which Japanese and other foreign nationals have been detained by local police during raids on bases for fraudsters. In eastern Myanmar bordering Thailand, a large number of foreigners, including Japanese, were found to have participated in scams. In Poipet in northwestern Cambodia, 29 Japanese were detained late last month.
Yomiuri Shimbun
6 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japanese Mother of Abductee Frustrated by Lack of Resolution to Issue; No Abductees Have Returned to Japan from North Korea Since 2002
The Yomiuri Shimbun Sakie Yokota speaks during a press conference next to a photo of her deceased husband Shigeru in Kawasaki on Tuesday. KAWASAKI — The mother of a Japanese woman abducted by North Korea said she is saddened by the absence of her husband and frustrated at 'not being able to resolve the situation.' Sakie Yokota, 89, spoke at a press conference in Kawasaki, where she lives, on Tuesday, two days before the fifth anniversary of her husband Shigeru's death. Their daughter Megumi was kidnapped when she was 13. Shigeru became the first representative of the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, which was formed in 1997. Shigeru traveled across the country, making appeals to resolve the issue. However, he was never able to reunite with his daughter. On Tuesday, Yokota recalled how her husband always ate the food she prepared and told her how delicious it was. '[Shigeru] talked to me about everything,' she said. 'He was a very kind person.' Regarding the abductees, five returned to Japan in October 2002, but since then, not a single person has been returned. Yokota said she talks to Shigeru's photo, which she keeps in the living room, every day. She tells him, 'It has been so long and there has been no change.' Akihiro Arimoto, the father of another abductee Keiko Arimoto, who was abducted when she was 23, died in February at 96, leaving Yokota as the only member of abductees' parents' generation still alive. 'I don't know if I will ever be able to see [Megumi] again either,' Yokota said. 'I hope the government will work on the issue more seriously.'
Japan Today
6 days ago
- Japan Today
The Japanese sword experience was one of our main programs, so this is a real blow to us.
The president of the Yamagata tourist association. A program that lets foreign tourists use real Japanese swords as part of the martial art iaido was suddenly canceled in January in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, because it violated the Firearms and Swords Control Law. © Yomiuri Shimbun
