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Attendees to Expo 2025 hit record numbers despite record numbers of bugs

Master Blaster May 29, 2025
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Maybe everyone’s coming to see the bugs?

As the days go by, the clouds of tiny, harmless flies gradually expand over the venue of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. Although they’ve become a thorn in the side of organizers and the Osaka government, they don’t seem to be having an adverse effect on the number of people showing up. In fact, attendance has never been better!

On 23 May, a new single-day attendance record was set at 139,000 regular visitors, surpassing even the number of people who attended on opening day and helping to push the total number of visitors over four million. This also brings the Expo closer to the 150,000 guests per day needed to achieve its goal of 28.2 million over the course of the whole event.

Additional discounts and a special early gate are said to have helped contribute to the increased numbers. However, it’s hard not to wonder if this insect phenomenon might actually be attracting people too. When you think about it, getting some pictures and video of it is great for engagement on social media.

▼ TV shows sure do like to get shots of them.

The possibility that people are coming to see the chironomids is not a chance the Osaka government is willing to embrace, though. In a press conference on 27 May, Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said that efforts to curb the spread of these insects are going full speed ahead. He also reminded everyone that even though these insects look like little mosquitoes they have no ability to bite people and pose no threat, aside from the piles of their dead bodies possibly triggering allergies.

He also said that Earth Chemical, a company with whom the Osaka Prefectural government has a partnership agreement, is already on the scene and has set up a Chironomid Countermeasure HQ along with the Expo Association to deal with the gentle but creepy bugs. Yoshimura added: “I think this is a very difficult issue. It is not something that can be easily overcome, but we will take all possible measures while incorporating the knowledge of experts.”

Speaking of experts, Professor Yuji Ikeya of the University of Tokyo’s pharmaceutical sciences department appeared on TV and bluntly said, “I think they should just give up.”

He explained that the larvae of the chironomids are quite resilient and at their current numbers are probably impossible to eradicate by human means. The larvae’s natural predators are fish, but since the Expo’s large pond of water has no fish, their numbers are free to flourish.

▼ The massive fountain shows with projection mapping in the water area probably make it hard to put fish in there.

Instead, Ikeya suggests the Expo embraces the flies as a part of their theme of “Designing a Future Society for Our Lives” since they’re a great example of life triumphing. He adds they should even make a little chironomid mascot to complement Myaku-Myaku.

I suspect he was joking about a lot of that, but he does have a point that these swarms of insects exemplify life at its purest and could be seen as an exhibit all their own. It’s just too bad it couldn’t have been a population explosion of red pandas, otters, or some other more socially embraced creature.

Source: YTV News NNN, MBS News, Nikkan Sports
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