-Made in Italy on show amid creativity, science, innovation-

 OSAKA, May 14, 2025/ANSA=Kyodo JBN/--

One month after the opening of the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, a first assessment can be made of the role it has played. Thanks to an agenda that was able to give a central role to local territories, the Italy Pavilion has played its part as a strategic outpost and a tool for the diplomacy of growth.

Italy’s regions and territories were the protagonists: 18 out of 20 regions in fact chose to take part in the project of Expo 2025 Osaka – an unprecedented number.

Over 80 institutional and cultural events were held in the first month alone, involving more than 120 Italian and Japanese companies, facilitating the signature of contracts and supplies worth millions of euros.

One example, among others, concerns the Danieli group which signed contracts for over 40 million euros.

In addition, during business meetings at the Italy Pavilion, the Japanese company Ebara announced an agreement to invest over 6 million euros in Gambellara, in the province of Vicenza.

Another example worth mentioning is Kagome, an historic Japanese leader in the agri-food market which produces in Calabria most of the vegetables that it distributes in Japan.

Calabria is also a protagonist thanks to important investments carried out by NTT Data, an historic Japanese company in the IT sector.

The Italy Pavilion has provided the setting over the past month for B2B meetings between Italian and Japanese companies, with more than 30 meetings.

Thanks to the innovative synergy with the Business and Made in Italy Ministry and state investment agency Invitalia, the Italy Pavilion has hosted an event every week, one for each territory, dedicated to foreign investments.

These included Selecting Italy, organized with the patronage of the Conference of Regions and the northeastern Friuli Venezia Giulia region, and initiatives to celebrate Made in Italy Day, including one organized by the foundation Altagamma in cooperation with Confartigianato.

The economy has been at the centre of events, in a privileged location to revamp Italy’s image in Asia – also from a business standpoint.

The aerospace and underwater sectors are moreover important for the Italy Pavilion with a significant role played, in this regard, by the installations of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), as well as of the Infrastructure and Transport Ministry.

And the Italy Pavilion’s closeness and synergy with Italian institutions is strong, starting with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, as well as the Ministries of University and Research, of Culture, of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Forests, of Business and Made in Italy, of Education and Merit as well as with the Department of the Sea and the Prime Minister’s office.

In addition to the economy, art and culture have also been the protagonists of the Italy Pavilion: the Japanese public was thus able to admire timeless masterworks like the Farnese Atlas, the portrait of Itō Mancio by Tintoretto and the Codex Atlanticus by Leonardo da Vinci.

Also on display were more contemporary oeuvres by artists such as Mimmo Paladino, Jago, Oriana Persico, Francesca Leone, Giulio Cinti and Matteo Ceccarini.

The choice to bring real artworks has been very much appreciated by the public, as also recognized by a survey carried out by prestigious financial daily Nikkei Shimbum, which recognized how the Italy Pavilion was mentioned more often and loved on social media in the first month since Expo opened its doors.

Space has also been given to sports and research, also thanks to collaborations with universities and research centres that brought their technology and discoveries in fields such as life sciences, as well as the sciences of space, communication and energy.

Interaction with the public was also possible thanks to workshops that could be booked through Apps, which enabled the Japanese and Asian public to get better acquainted with Italian know-how.

Source: General Commissioner’s Office of Italy for Expo 2025 Osaka