Expo 2025: Panasonic’s Resource-Recycling Pavilion Marks Construction Milestone

The 2025 Japan International Expo (Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan) is one year away, opening on April 13, 2025. As previously announced, Panasonic Group has already begun building its pavilion, which is known as “The Land of NOMO.” Construction is progressing smoothly toward the completion ceremony scheduled for next February, and is currently about 50 percent complete.

The Panasonic Group aims to realize “an ideal society with affluence both in matter and mind,” and the “The Land of NOMO” pavilion has been designed as an expression of this corporate vision. The name “The Land of NOMO” comes from the idea that “the way we perceive things changes depending on our mindset, and that minds and objects are like mirrors.” The pavilion concept is “Unleash your mind, body, yourself, and world.”

Applying the sound, light, wind, sensing, and other technologies that it has cultivated over the years, the Panasonic Group is preparing an experience that will unleash the power of imagination, creativity, and potential of every child in a space where people and nature can harmonize and feel connected to the world (circulation). Detailed information about individual experiences at The Land of NOMO is scheduled to be announced this summer.

The Panasonic Group is promoting initiatives under long-term environmental vision Panasonic GREEN IMPACT to address and resolve global environmental challenges—an important prerequisite to realizing an ideal society. The theme of “circulation” will be embodied not only in the experiences offered at the pavilion, but also in its structure, which actively incorporates recycled steel and copper recovered from used home appliances as well as scrap wood and waste materials from factories with the aim of creating a resource-recycling pavilion.

For example, Panasonic has adopted a sustainable design for the pavilion, with approximately 98% of the main pillars and beams, or 97 tons, made of iron recycled from home appliances. The company has also chosen recycled copper for the 891 meters of main trunk cable to be used within the pavilion. The cable is being produced from approximately 1.2 tons of copper recovered from home appliance printed circuit boards.

At the time of the groundbreaking ceremony for the pavilion in July 2023, recycled glass from an estimated 4,600 drum-type washer/dryers manufactured by the Panasonic Group was expected to be used, but the company has since accelerated its reclamation efforts and now expects to reclaim glass from nearly twice as many washer/dryers—approximately 9,200 units.

The pavilion is designed by architect Yuko Nagayama, who was also responsible for the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. In March this year, Nagayama’s “Sea Hammock” was installed at Sakura Plaza on Panasonic Group-owned land in Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture.

The Sea Hammock is made from recycled fishing net. Extending the theme of “circulation,” recycled fishing nets will also be transformed and used as benches within the pavilion site. The Sea Hammock installation at Sakura Plaza is scheduled to run from Tuesday, March 26, 2024 to Monday, October 13, 2025.

“The Sea Hammock reuses some of the materials from the one installed at Tokyo Midtown Grass Square in 2022,” said Nagayama, who explained: “Like the pavilion, the Sea Hammock is based on the concept of material recycling, and recycles fishing nets that had been discarded. Marine debris is a serious problem for Japan, which is surrounded by the sea. Fishing line does not easily decompose, and a solution is needed today. These recycled fishing nets will also appear in a different form at The Land of NOMO pavilion. Although the pavilion’s key audience is Generation Alpha, we plan to provide a place where adults can also reminisce about their childhoods.”

Said Ogawa: “I hope that visitors will experience the beauty of the four seasons from a distance and perspective they’ve never experienced before while swinging in the Sea Hammock, and that it will offer them an opportunity to notice and think about the cycle of nature, which is related to the concept of The Land of NOMO. The tagline of The Land of NOMO, announced last November, is ‘Unlock your nature,’ and I believe this installation provides the perfect opportunity to do just that.”

The Panasonic Group will continue to make preparations to provide children with the unique experience of realizing the future society they envision at The Land of NOMO.

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan plans to host a variety of activities, including music events and stages, festivals, sporting events, exhibitions, lectures and presentations, and ceremonies. Organizers are moving forward with an attractive program featuring events by official participants with an international flavor, events by renowned artists from Japan and abroad, and events that connect traditional arts and festivals to the future. Anticipation is mounting.