Closing of the EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan

On September 25th, in the presence of His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince, the 2005 World Exposition was officially closed. The closing ceremony was also attended by the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, President of the BIE Wu Jianmin, Governor of Aichi Prefecture Masaki Kanda, and Chairman of the Japan Association for the 2005 World Exposition Shoichiro Toyoda. 125 countries and international organizations, many NGO's and NPO's, as well as many Japanese corporations participated at the first EXPO of the 21st century. In six months, the Exhibition, held on 173 hectares in the outskirts of Japan’s fourth largest city - Nagoya, was visited by more than 22 million people. Last weeks of EXPO were marked by very long queues, so the final number of visitors exceeded original projections by 7 million. Furthermore, number of visitors from the previous EXPO in Hanover was topped by 4 million.

On the last day of EXPO the Croatian Pavilion in Aichi also played its last show. In 185 days almost one million people got to know Croatia through the imaginative story of a drop of water and a grain of salt. Excellent reviews in media, praise from many VIP guests, and huge interest among visitors enabled the Croatian Pavilion to be regarded as one of the top attractions of the EXPO 2005. These positive reactions also confirm that Croatia - once again, after Lisbon and Hanover - was well presented at a World Exposition.

First World Exposition of the 21st century was held under the motto of Nature’s Wisdom and in a unique atmosphere of friendship among countries that such events should always provide. Therefore, it is no wonder that the leitmotiv of closing sppeches of dignitaries from Japan and from around the world was a wish that such a succesfull EXPO would be repeated in Zaragoza in 2008 and Shanghai in 2010.

Datum novosti: 9/25/2005