Osaka Expo Androids to Be Moved to Kyoto

Osaka, Oct. 12 (Jiji Press)–Seven android robots shown at the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka in a pavilion produced by University of Osaka professor Hiroshi Ishiguro will be relocated to Kyoto Prefecture after the end of the event on Monday. In addition, the Dutch pavilion will be moved to Awaji Island, Hyogo Prefecture. People involved in the use of Expo assets after the event hope that they will be loved as tourist attractions in their new places. The prefectural government of Kyoto, which neighbors Osaka Prefecture, was chosen as the new owner of the androids in an open tender held by the Expo organizer, the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, in September. The robots will be shown to the public at a research facility in the Keihanna Science City research district straddling Kyoto’s Seika and Kizugawa. The prefectural government is also considering showing the robots in rotating exhibitions in the western prefecture. “We want people who were not able to see the robots at the Expo venue to feel close to them,” a prefectural government official said. Human resources giant Pasona Group Inc. has reached an agreement with the Netherlands to move the Dutch pavilion building, featuring a floating sphere about 11 meters in diameter, to Awaji Island, where some of the company’s headquarters functions are located. “We hope the building will be loved by people of the island,” a Pasona official said. The Luxembourg pavilion building will be reused as a public facility by the city of Katano, Osaka. The so-called 200-million-yen toilets designed by a young architect and criticized for being too expensive will be moved to a botanical garden in Kawachinagano, also Osaka. Meanwhile, relocation costs have created a headache in some cases. The Blue Ocean Dome pavilion of nonprofit organization Zeri Japan is expected to be relocated to a resort facility in the Indian Ocean island state of Maldives. But “it’s very difficult and expensive to demolish it carefully so that it can be moved,” an official said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]