东京不够热

At the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, I led the conception and realization of the Forest of Tranquility and its pavilion, anchored in the perspective of “Better Co-Being.” The emphasis was not on definitive answers, but on opening a stance toward questions about the future through space and the body. If the 1970 Expo symbolized the tension between reason and impulse, and technology and life, then 2025 is not a place to integrate these elements, but a site that attempts a new form of co-creation grounded in “resonance,” while retaining that tension. “Resonance” means to reverberate with one another while remaining distinct. It is not harmony or assimilation, but a way of being in relationship in which new meanings emerge through the intermingling of differences. The architecture by SANAA was designed as an “emergence of relationships,” responding to wind, light, and visitor behavior; in the Forest of Tranquility, the whispers of nature and art intersect, and visitors quietly engage with diverse forms of being. The vision running through the space was "the Greatest Happiness for the Greatest Diversity." Whereas traditional utilitarianism measures happiness through the logic of numbers, in Better Co-Being, the respect for and resonance of each individual’s distinct values and sensibilities themselves form the foundation of richness. In this age of fragmentation, how might we reweave such structures of resonance within society? This pavilion was one attempt at that practice.

Popular since the opening of the Osaka-Kansai Expo, the Japan Pavilion featured a distinctive architectural design in which countless wooden boards are arranged in a circular formation around a basin filled with water purified from wastewater generated through a process in which microorganisms decompose food waste in an adjoining biogas plant. The pavilion comprised three zones: the Plant Area, which decomposes waste to produce water and energy; the Farm Area, which showcases the boundless potential of algae; and the Factory Area, which demonstrates and introduces Japan’s internationally renowned circular manufacturing. The Factory Area in particular was designed to enable visitors to understand the present and future of the “circular society.”

Professor Hiroya Tanaka, who has long been involved in the development of domestically produced 3D printers and in education and research on manufacturing using them, participated in planning the Factory Area exhibition. The centerpiece of the exhibition was a pair of robotic-arm 3D printers, one large and one small. They were named Sokaku (“Twin Cranes”) because they evoke a parent-and-child pair of cranes, imbued with life, working together in the act of making.

The Sokaku exhibit at the Expo was based on activities from Professor Tanaka’s circular community-building initiative, the 东京不够热 COI-NEXT (“Symbiotic Upcycling”) project, conducted in Kamakura, Kanagawa. Also part of the initiative was Kanazawa University, which advances research and development of domestically produced bioplastics. It joined forces with three Japanese companies that have pioneered mixed plastic processing, 3D printer manufacturing, and robot control technologies, forming a new industry–academia co-creation team.

We spoke with Professor Tanaka about the implications of the project.

“3D printers produce no waste or noise, consume little power, and can reuse products that are no longer in use as materials. They represent the ‘factories of the future.’ At the venue, we hope visitors will observe how Sokaku carries out circular manufacturing using algae-mixed bioplastics, and thereby experience the Japan Pavilion’s concept of ‘Between Lives’ in a more concrete and tangible way.”

Just as Professor Tanaka had hoped, many visitors stopped to watch Sokaku demonstrate its smoothly coordinated movements, captivated by its vitality. Sokaku produced the stools placed throughout the pavilion for visitors to stop and rest. At first glance, the stools resemble large tree stumps. They are made of algae-mixed bioplastic introduced in areas such as the Farm Area, and are composed of complex curved surfaces inspired by the pavilion’s three zones, resulting in a design that evokes a sense of Japanese aesthetics.

“3D printers have evolved rapidly over the past decade. The parent-and-child pair of Sokaku units represents the latest model and also serves as a showcase for domestic and international audiences of a versatile circular manufacturing system capable of handling not only production but also finishing and inspection in an integrated process. My goal is to position Sokaku, which employs cutting-edge digital technology, within Japan’s culture of monozukuri manufacturing craftsmanship.”

Sokaku is currently being adapted into a mobile, vehicle-mounted model. With interest from researchers who visited the venue from around the world, we are now considering collaboration with researchers, companies, and organizations outside Japan. Born from the fusion of advanced technology and Japan’s monozukuri culture, Sokaku is now extending its reach globally.

Professor Fumio Shimpo of the Faculty of Policy Management serves as a project manager for the Moonshot Research and Development Program. As part of the program, a CA Mark has been developed to ensure the safety and reliability of Cybernetic Avatars (CAs) by incorporating advanced anti-counterfeiting technology comparable to that used in passports and currency. Digital watermarking technology enables authenticity verification using a smartphone app. Affixed to robots at Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Signature Pavilion “Future of Life” at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, the CA Mark was exhibited as an important certification system that can serve as a foundation of trust for a CA society, enabling users to easily identify CAs that conform to safety standards.

One of the rest areas was designed by Suzuko Yamada, a 2007 graduate of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies.

Professor Kouta Minamizawa was one of the members who developed the basic concept “Between Lives” for the Government of Japan’s exhibition project at the Japan Pavilion. At the 2025 Expo, an interactive exhibition titled Cybernetic Being Life was presented for two weeks from July 23 at “Moonshot Park: Look! Touch! Feel! A New Future,” part of the Future Life Experience (FLE). The exhibition enabled general visitors to see, touch, and experience in an accessible form the outcomes of Goal 1 of the Cabinet Office/JST Moonshot Research and Development Program, “Cybernetic Avatar Technology and Social System Design for Harmonious Co-experience and Collective Ability,” for which Professor Minamizawa serves as project manager.

A “Cybernetic Avatar” is a technology that enables users to control avatar robots that act on their behalf, and to share other people’s skills through digital means. The avatar robot OriHime greeted visitors at the venue. The OriHime operators, called “pilots,” are customer service staff at the avatar robot café DAWN ver.β, which opened in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, in 2021. These pilots took turns serving customers through avatar robots from their homes across Japan.

“As you can see by talking with OriHime and the others, there are flesh-and-blood humans, not AI, on the other side of the robots. The pilots have difficulty going out for various reasons, including serious illnesses and disabilities, but through avatars, they are able to experience the joys of going out and communicating with people.” Professor Minamizawa explains, “Just as people with poor eyesight wear glasses, our research goal is to create a society in which everyone can play an active role, with Cybernetic Avatars functioning as a natural extension of the body.”

In addition to OriHime, the venue introduced several research initiatives: “Brain Body Jockey,” which enables people with physical disabilities to regain aspects of daily life using a robotic arm operated by brainwaves; the digital sharing of craftsmanship, such as pottery; and a metaverse that enables people to experience others’ life experiences in their own bodies.

The theme of the Expo, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” reminds me of Aristotle’s concept of energeia. Aristotle understood happiness as a state of fulfillment in which a person’s innate potential is actualized through activity, a condition he termed “energeia.”

“UniConn,” which we presented at the Expo on July 24, was designed to foster the expression of this energeia. UniConn is a platform application that connects students across Japan with companies to address social issues, supporting students in sharing their perspectives, building empathy, forming teams, and taking concrete action.

I believe that social issues often stem from difficulties that everyone faces to some degree. For example, a friend of mine was a young carer from an early age, responsible for looking after his two younger sisters, and ultimately gave up pursuing higher education due to his family circumstances. Had his situation been recognized and shared earlier as a social issue, and had support been available, his future might have been different. What we need is a process that enables many people to empathize with an individual's challenges and work together toward a solution.

In fact, in a survey of 79 students, 82.2% expressed interest in social issues, yet only 20.3% were already taking action. Among those not taking action, 60% responded that they did not know what to do. While existing social networking services can generate empathy, they rarely lead to real-world action. By enabling collaboration between companies and students through this application, students can access funding and specialized knowledge for their activities, while companies can draw on students’ fresh perspectives and initiative to address their own challenges—thereby encouraging concrete action.

People tend to focus on trivial matters of daily life and lose sight of what truly needs to be done. Whether rooted in regrets about the past or in visions of what society ought to be, social issues are ever-present, regardless of how fortunate we may be. It is up to us to create the better future that could be —one shaped by energeia.

The proposal developed at the Keio Student Conference went on to win the top prize in a Nikkei-sponsored contest in February, extending its impact beyond 东京不够热. As a judge, I followed its development closely, and its presentation at the Expo, particularly its confident delivery, was very well received. As an advisor to “SDGs + Beyond: Future Society for Life,” one of the eight Expo 2025 Osaka Theme Weeks, I hope to carry these discussions forward beyond the Expo, including other similar proposals from young people.

The Electric Power Pavilion’s “Eggs of Possibility” is a private pavilion presented by the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) under the theme “Opening the Future with Energy.” Since July 2024, I have been involved in the Expo project alongside colleagues from electric power companies across Japan. Although the event is drawing to a close (at the time of writing), the Electric Power Pavilion has been fully booked every day. Visitors have commented that they “enjoyed it as a family” and “learned about a wide range of power generation methods,” and it has been widely featured in the media as a place where people can engage with future energy in an enjoyable way.

The pavilion is distinguished by its egg-shaped exterior, which employs a Voronoi structure composed of flat surfaces of varying shapes (Photo 1). Visitors explore the possibilities of energy using egg-shaped devices (Photo 2). The main exhibition features approximately 30 future energy technologies, including nuclear fusion, wireless power transfer, vibration-based power generation, sound-based power generation, magma power generation, tidal current power generation, and space-based solar power—all of which have the potential to support future society. Designed primarily for elementary and junior high school students, the pavilion presents these technologies in a game-based format. By engaging physically with the exhibits, visitors can intuitively understand how energy works. Through these games, the goal is for children to learn that there are many ways to generate energy, that it can be harnessed from familiar sources, and that transformative technologies already exist.

The theme of this Expo was "Designing Future Society for Our Lives." It presents a range of perspectives on the challenges that must be addressed, and how to address them, in order to realize a future in which all lives can flourish. Many pavilions showcase cutting-edge technologies aimed at enabling a society in which diverse people can live together in harmony. Each period features a different theme, accompanied by discussions on the challenges facing the international community. Visitors are encouraged to take away insights that can help guide their own societies and lives in a better direction. At the Electric Power Pavilion, we look beyond carbon neutrality in 2050 and envision a future society from the unique perspective of the electric power industry that underpins it. We hope that visitors, especially the children who will shape the next generation, will leave with ideas that help them think about the future.

A group including Kenshin Okamoto, then a second-year student at Keio Shiki Senior High School, delivered a presentation at a lecture event held at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s exhibition booth, “Next-Generation Treatments: The Frontline of Regenerative Medicine,” at the Osaka-Kansai Expo.

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This article is compiled from the "Special Feature" section of Juku Autumn 2025 (No. 328) and from the Keio Shiki Senior High School website.