Composite: (Left) Umi ウミ (@XkEL7NiSXE795tS) | (Right) Yawara (@izumi_yawara) - images used with permission

Japanese Twitter users get creative with amusing reinterpretations of new Osaka Expo logo

With an expected 28 million visitors, the Osaka Expo in 2025 is propped up to be the next big international event happening in Japan after the Tokyo Olympics.

The World Expo is held every 5 years with the aim to “bring together people and innovations from around the world […] to address issues facing mankind”. Japan hosted its first officially recognized World Expo in 1970, also held in Osaka, and 2025 marks 55 years since this historic event.

The bid to host the upcoming World Expo was won by Osaka back in 2018 under the theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”. And recently, the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition revealed the logo which will be used for the event.

According to a report by The Mainichi, the logo is meant to express “the brilliance of life” and is a throwback to parts of the 1970 Expo logo recreated to look like a cell nucleus.

When images of the new Osaka Expo logo were made public, Twitter users in Japan quickly reacted to the news. We introduced some of the interesting comparisons the logo elicited in an earlier article, but Twitter users made all sorts of creative reinterpretations as well.

For example, some users gave the logo a cuter appeal using familiar Japanese characters like Kirby & his nemesis Waddle Doo, and Mister Donut’s mascot, Pon de Lion. Even the official Gudetama Twitter page added their own contribution to remaking the logo.

Some users took a more serious approach with the logo, while still staying very creative.

Others opted for mediums outside of illustration and took to video games and food instead.

Based on all of these posts, it looks like the Osaka Expo logo has already at least made its mark on the Japanese public.


By - Jen Laforteza.