Aichi Expo Update: Good news and “bad” news

Before you read this, remember the Osaka Expo in 1970 attracted a whopping 64.2 million people, so comparatively this one is a big flop!

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Number Of Visitors To Aichi Expo Tops Targeted 15mn

NAGOYA (Kyodo)–The number of visitors to the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture on Thursday surpassed the 15 million mark, the target set by the Expo organizers, 40 days before the event’s closing Sept. 25.

According to the Japan Association for World Exposition 2005, the 15 millionth visitor entered the gate at around 10:15 a.m. on the 147th day of the 185-day expo, which began March 25.

”We believe we were able to achieve the goal more than a month earlier than the event closes because many people highly valued the exposition’s unique exhibits and a variety of events,” Shoichiro Toyoda, the association’s chairman, said in a statement. Toyoda is also honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. (7203).

An association official said the number of visitors is likely to reach 18 million by the closing day of the expo and may even top 19 million.

Shortly after opening, the expo saw low turnout, blamed mainly on poor weather, but it began getting crowded after Japan’s Golden Week holidays in early May. The number of visitors each day has often topped 100,000.

About 216,000 people visited the expo July 17, a single-day record.

Five indicted for making porno video on Expo cable car

NAGOYA — Police sent papers Friday to prosecutors on five people on suspicion of shooting pornographic video footage on a cable car at the site of the World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture, in violation of the Minor Offenses Law, police officials said.

The police allege a 33-year-old producer, a 28-year-old director and a 31-year-old video photographer for a TV program production company, a 39-year-old actor and a 26-year-old actress of shooting the video footage for about a minute May 2 on the Kikkoro Gondola cable car. The case came to light after a person who saw the video on a pornographic cable channel informed the Expo organizer, Japan Association for the 2005 World Exposition, about it, the police said. (Kyodo News)

Extra details on the porno incident from ZAKZAK:

According to investigations, the minute-long scene is of a man groping a topless woman on the Kikkoro Gondola. The gondola can seat 8, and the scene was likely visible to those outside the craft as it is mostly clear glass, designed to give a view of the scenery and activity below.

The five suspects originally planned to shoot a scene outdoors within the Expo grounds, but had to change the location to inside the gondola since the Expo was crowded with Golden Week tourists. The group also filmed a scene in which they ask foreign staff sexually explicit questions.

My jealous contempt of the Aichi Expo has been documented on this site before, so you can see why this incident steams my beans. Taken one way, this is a pretty good sign for the Expo — it was so crowded the porn directors had to change their location to someplace quieter! Curses…

3 thoughts on “Aichi Expo Update: Good news and “bad” news”

  1. I think any comparison to 1970 is faulty. The ’70 Expo was a really, really big deal: it was part of the postwar coming-out party that began with the ’64 Olympics. Japan was a rising star back then. Now, it’s just another big, stagnant economic power.

    18 million will be a great number for this Expo. That’s what, 15% or so of the population of Japan? Quite a turnout. It’s really not unlike the LA Olympics: something big to be excited about, but nothing that will be remembered too much 10 years from now, unlike Tokyo ’64 and Osaka ’70 which were little watersheds of sorts.

  2. I have a feeling that the 2010 Shanghai World Expo will have a lot more attendies, but it will also probably be a lot crazier in every way. I have to say, I am definitely going to be there. Of course, I would be at this one as well if I had time and money.

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