Nearly 160 countries and regions participated in the Osaka Expo, with each bringing staff from overseas to help run their respective pavilions over the course of the six-month event.
The Japan Times spoke with four staff members from countries around the world in order to get their unique perspectives on the event and how it will impact them going forward.
Inna Ilina, Ukraine
For Ilina, the expo was an experience filled with mixed emotions.
On one end of the spectrum there was the joy she experienced in witnessing a wide array of cultural events and through interactions with visitors from Japan and around the world.
On the opposite end, there were feelings of guilt and internal questions about whether she was really supposed to be having fun.
“When you check the news and you receive calls from your relatives ... and then you have these (lively) performances over there. It's really hard," she said. “Sometimes you feel you cannot (celebrate) because people are dying. But from the other side, you understand that you continue to live."
Ukraine was a late addition to the list of countries participating in the expo, with the Japanese government and Ukrainian businesses supporting the endeavor so that no state funds would be diverted from its war effort.
The pavilion, located in the shared Commons C space, is presented as a store where nothing can be bought. Ilina said she was grateful that her country was able to participate and send out a clear message: Ukraine and its democratic values are not for sale.
The experience, she said, was inspiring.
“Sometimes you feel like you can do nothing ... but when you have this kind of support from all over the world, you feel like together we can do something.
“You feel that you are not alone.”
Ilina was working at the Ukrainian Embassy in Tokyo prior to the expo and is not sure where she will go with her two children after her work with the pavilion wraps up.
“I want to go and do something for my country, to work for my country, but from the other side, I’m thinking about my kids,” she said.
“I want them to be in a safe place.”
Azar Ahmad, Malaysia
The end of the expo is a bittersweet feeling for Ahmad.
On one hand, she'll be able to return to Malaysia and see her children. On the other, she'll miss the team members at the Malaysian Pavilion, with whom she developed deep bonds over the past half year.
“We keep on smiling, but in our heart, we start to feel the sadness,” she said in an interview last week. “We are like a family here under one roof, every day we meet each other. We have joy, we have fun together.”
Through her interactions with thousands of guests, Ahmad learned that everyone had a different reason for visiting the expo.
“Some of them come ... because they did not get the chance to go to another country. This is where they find 150 other countries in one place,” she said.
“This is where they learn culture, they see the innovation. ... This is an opportunity for us.”
Going forward, Ahmad says she will bring the lessons she learned from the expo to her work with the Malaysian government, including problem-solving and team building.
Mamdouh Shanouda, Sudan
The expo was an opportunity for Shanouda to highlight that there is more to his home country than just the dire headlines.
While civil war has ravaged parts of Sudan for decades, Shanouda was keen to educate people about the positive points of the country of 52 million and demonstrate its historical sites, including the ancient pyramids in the north, bountiful nature and handcrafted products.
“Japanese people are very highly educated people, and they are very interested to know about the culture, about what is inside the country,” he said.
Shanouda, a veteran of every World Expo dating back to Hanover in 2000, was full of praise for the organizers and the host country, calling it one of the best expos he has attended.
“The expo is like a small city. Each country brings a culture, and as a country, you can learn from each other,” he said.
“The way of the expo site, for me it’s a new landscape. The (Grand) Ring makes the expo more unique, for the international people and the visitors.”
Shona Allemann, Switzerland
Unlike many of her friends back home, Allemann wasn’t particularly interested in Japan or Japanese culture before she took up a post with the Swiss Pavilion.
But spending six months in Osaka during the expo appears to have changed that.
She says she cherishes the relationships she was able to build with her fellow Swiss staff members but also the people she has met and become friends with in Japan.
“I'm sure that some people I will see again after ... I want to make them discover Switzerland as well,” she said. “And I am sure I will be coming back to Japan to visit them again.”
Allemann, who called the experience “life-changing,” said she really appreciated the hospitality shown by Japan in welcoming the world and that she wants to take that spirit back home with her.
“I think there’s so many things that we can learn from each other,” she said.
“We Swiss people can gain something from the Japanese people, and the Japanese people will also gain something from the Swiss people.”
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