Overview

• A 30-something man suffered a head injury on Sept. 13, 2024 at the China Pavilion site and his case was not included in the Japan International Exposition Association’s publicly reported 13 accidents.
• The injured worker was a self-employed one-person contractor who relied on his own special workers’ compensation enrollment for leave and medical costs, highlighting gaps in on-site protection.
• The worker and others described a lack of assistance or responsibility from contractors, underscoring persistent frustration over pay, coverage and accountability at the venue.
• Despite a pledge of a “no-line” digital experience, visitors faced severe access problems including roughly 12-hour waits to exchange unused tickets for same-day entry and ongoing reservation system issues.
• Attendance surged from mid-September with daily totals topping 200,000 and cumulative visits surpassing the 2005 Aichi Expo, following a marketing turnaround driven after a non-public December 2024 board meeting that brought in executive Tetsu Mizutani and research tied to Dentsu.