Expo Osaka, Italian Pavilion booms with visitors in August

Attendance boom in the last month for the Italian Pavilion at the Expo in Osaka, Japan. From 13 July to 13 August, in the fourth month since the opening of the universal exhibition, attendance at the events organised in the auditorium and institutional hall increased by 46% (compared to the quarter from 13 April to 13 July). While attendance on 13 July was 7,705, in the last month alone a further 3,520 attended, for an overall total of 11,225.

Of the total 457 events in four months, 124 are business events, underlining the centrality of the Pavilion as a tool for the promotion of Made in Italy and the internationalisation of Italian companies. A figure that is also reflected in the increase in the last month (+30%) of the number of representatives of Italian, Japanese and foreign companies involved in business events: from April 13 to July 13 there were 3,100, on August 13 the total reaches 4,055. The Italian Pavilion continues to be a privileged space for meetings between companies, with over 100 B2B meetings and networking activities plus 50 tastings in the official restaurant run by Eataly.

The space is also among the most visited by institutional and economic delegations, with a growth in the last 30 days of 88% compared to the first quarter. In the first four months, there were 390 visits to the Italian Pavilion: 183 in the last month alone. Also worth mentioning are the 12 agreements and memorandums of understanding signed and announced between universities, research centres, chambers of commerce, and civil society organisations. And the 336 million euros in investments always announced and signed in the Italian Pavilion: the Danieli Group's acquisition of two major contracts in Japan worth a total of 200 million, the NSG Group's 80 million investment for the renovation and expansion of a high-performance oven in the San Salvo (Chieti) plant. And again: DR Automobiles' 50 million investment for the Macchia d'Isernia (Isernia) production site with an industrial plan that will see 300 people hired as part of a revamping project for historic Italian brands. Finally, the announcement of Ebara Corporation that it will invest EUR 6 million to add a new industrial shed to the Gambellara (Vicenza) site.

Beyond the importance of the economy, the Italian Pavilion, which registered over 5 hours of continuous queues at the entrance, was also crowned first at Expo 2025 for 'high culture' by Esquire Japan magazine. There were in fact 233 cultural events, involving over 4,200 participants in the Pavilion's auditorium alone, in the last month, a sharp increase (+76%) compared to the April-July period. Numbers that go even higher if one considers the 140 shows, 125 of which in the theatre. The echo for the Italian initiatives was also wide: there were more than 36 million total views of the content on social media, a number in the last month up by +20% compared to the quarter from 13 April to 13 July.