In April 2025, Osaka will open its third, and Japan's sixth, international exhibition, or expo. This talk will draw on a forthcoming book to suggest why Japan persists – when the time for such big events is supposedly long past – and why other cities and countries therefore persist too. Japan has been hosting expos since 1970, having first appeared at them in the 1860s. But the archipelago already had a thriving exhibition culture by the mid-18th century. And its modern enthusiasm for them was sustained not for the most part by the state, but by sub-national actors: until the end of the 20th century, local governments, colonial authorities, and private interests found in expos a useful medium through which to calibrate their progress and advertise their wares. The talk will suggest that the Japanese use of expos is also useful, therefore, as a corrective to our standard assumptions about modern visual culture; about the development from which it arises and which it fosters; and the nature and representation of modern Japanese political economy. Expos can also serve to refine our own understanding of such phenomena, and to moderate some of our wilder claims.

Reischauer Institute Japan Forum