Man gets admission to Osaka Expo with ticket for 1940 event that never took place
The 1940 expo was officially known as the "2600 Japan International Exposition," based on the Japanese imperial calendar beginning in 660 B.C. Among experts and enthusiasts, it is known as the "phantom expo," and tickets that were not refunded during the chaos have been used at subsequent expos, including the 1970 Expo in Osaka.
Holding the time-honored ticket was Fumiya Takenawa, 25, a company worker from Tokyo's Suginami Ward, who was visiting his parents' home in Osaka Prefecture. A fan of the "Tower of the Sun," the symbol of the 1970 Osaka Expo, Takenawa collects expo-related memorabilia. In March, he found and purchased a "phantom expo" ticket online. Though he initially displayed it at home in a showcase, he became curious about whether it could be used at the latest event and contacted the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition. The association reportedly responded that if the ticket was genuine and met the requirements, it would accommodate its use.
A smiling Takenawa said, "It's my first Expo, and it was great to be a part of history." He added, "Expos are bridges of peace. After 85 years, I hope this clears the regrets of the person who couldn't attend the Expo that they must have been looking forward to." He said his main interests were the Czech and Saudi Arabian pavilions, and he intends to return to the event each time he visits his family.
According to an association representative, 1 million copies of the "phantom expo" ticket booklets were sold in 1938. Each booklet contained 12 tickets and was priced at 10 yen (approximately 17,000 yen or roughly $118 in today's currency). For the latest Expo, each unused booklet can be exchanged for two adult day passes, and the booklet is returned to the owner. Approximately 3,000 exchanges occurred at the 1970 Osaka Expo and about 100 at the 2005 Aichi Expo.
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But setting aside just for a moment my own enthusiasm for expos, I also have a sneaking regard for the Expo Lady in a different way as a next-level obsessive. The obsessives of this world often instinctively grasp that imbuing significance and attachment to something seemingly trivial can invest their own lives with purpose and meaning and sometimes yield the most spectacular results. I am reminded of the film "The Lost King", in which a middle-aged lady at a loose end after losing her job randomly conceives an interest in the English Plantagenet King Richard III (r. 1483-85), whose final resting place after being killed in battle had been a centuries' long mystery. She decides to obsessively read every book she can about him and attend meetings of other enthusiasts, until finally her pursuit leads her to actually working out where his body is buried (under a car park). 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A former British finance minister -- a fellow of no particular abilities or interest -- once gripped my attention when he revealed that he was spending his retirement attempting to visit every country in South America. This is the type of thing which every completionist can appreciate. Ticking things off, collecting things, getting a full set of something, these are all activities that human beings seem to be curiously drawn to. For many years I tended to fly back and forth to Japan with the Dutch carrier KLM. In my 20s and 30s, I flew so many times with them that my air miles built up and, joy of joys, I could finally upgrade myself every now and then to business class. It's a ritual of business class travel with KLM that at the end of the journey the cabin crew come round and offer you one of their mini Delft Blue Dutch Houses (modelled on 105 real historical houses in Amsterdam) filled with Bols liquor. Whenever I used to receive one of these, I would take it home, crack open the seal on the chimney and drink it. Only when I had collected seven or eight of them did someone point out to me that I wasn't supposed to be drinking them: I was supposed to be collecting them. The next time I wangled my way into business class, I observed a besuited executive take out a notebook with the list of dozens of numbers of all the mini houses he had collected so that he could carefully choose one that he did not already possess. I began to realize what an absolute amateur I was in the world of completionist collecting, merely picking out a Dutch house based on a vague memory of the ones I already had. If you can't beat them, join them... Soon I too was showing up with the numbers of Dutch houses I already had at home, intent on adding a couple more to the set. And then, just when I had built up a small collection, I stopped flying as much and was peremptorily returned to economy on an almost permanent basis. For most of us in life, we are lucky if we get to one or two South American countries, lucky to have a couple of pretty Dutch houses as souvenirs of travelling business class, lucky to spend a couple of days at Osaka Expo... But we can surely summon up admiration for those who refuse to compromise, who want the full set, and manage like the Expo Lady to get round all 188 pavilions. When she got into the Dutch Pavilion, my only regret is that the Dutch Consul General did not present her -- instead of a silly "Miffy" toy -- with the full set of 105 Delft Blue Dutch houses. That would have been a truly suitable presentation to the amazing Expo Lady, that most superbly accomplished hunter of the White Whale. @DamianFlanagan (This is Part 66 of a series) In this column, Damian Flanagan, a researcher in Japanese literature, ponders about Japanese culture as he travels back and forth between Japan and Britain. Profile: Damian Flanagan is an author and critic born in Britain in 1969. He studied in Tokyo and Kyoto between 1989 and 1990 while a student at Cambridge University. He was engaged in research activities at Kobe University from 1993 through 1999. After taking the master's and doctoral courses in Japanese literature, he earned a Ph.D. in 2000. He is now based in both Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and Manchester. He is the author of "Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature" (Sekai Bungaku no superstar Natsume Soseki).
