Challenges and hopes marked Sunday's opening of the 2025 World Exposition in the city of Osaka.

"I'm filled with emotion," Masakazu Tokura, chairman of the Japan Association for the 2025 Expo, said on Sunday morning. "We made it to the opening after overcoming various difficulties and hurdles."

But India, Nepal and three other countries were unable to open their pavilions on the first day of the Expo, due to construction delays.