A scene from the “Live Earth Journey in Virtual” virtual pavilion (left) and “Galaxy” from the Better Co-Being virtual pavilion (right)
Virtual spaces for pavilions sponsored by TOPPAN Holdings featured in Yumeshima Islands in the Sky
Tokyo – TOPPAN Holdings Inc. (TOPPAN Holdings) is sponsoring the thematic project Signature Pavilions1 Live Earth Journey,2 produced by Shoji Kawamori (theme: Totality of Life), and Better Co-Being,3 produced by Hiroaki Miyata (theme: Resonance of Lives), at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan (Expo 2025).
For the two pavilions that it is sponsoring, the TOPPAN Group has produced virtual pavilions within Virtual Expo~Yumeshima Islands in the Sky~,4 the virtual site of Expo 2025. The Virtual Expo can be accessed free of charge via smartphones, tablets, PCs, and VR goggles.
About the “Live Earth Journey in Virtual” Pavilion
Users can enjoy a virtual experience of various forms of life and the relationships between them and intuitively feel “a miracle living now and here together.”
The INOCHI-DAMA (sphere of life)5 is an original object designed by Shoji Kawamori as “a symbol of combined and transformed biodiversity.” The INOCHI-DAMA installed as a 3.5-meter monument in the physical pavilion appears as a 70-meter-tall object in the virtual space. Transforming into various living things, visitors can walk around the huge INOCHI-DAMA made of diverse forms of life and dive into its interior from above. This allows them to enjoy a Live Earth Experience unique to the virtual space, jumping into the world inside the sphere in a way that is not possible in the real world.
The adventure continues inside the INOCHI-DAMA. Visitors encounter a wide variety of life inside the sphere as they experience skydiving from its top. Finally, they step down onto the ground and into the world of fungal filaments in the earth.
About the Live Earth Journey Signature Pavilion
Thematic project: Totality of Life
Producer: Shoji Kawamori (animation director, mecha designer, vision creator)
TOPPAN Holdings is sponsoring the pavilion as a Gold Partner and providing a large, four-meter LED vision wall for the pavilion’s “The Window of the Universe” display as well as some of the visual content shown on it. TOPPAN Holdings is also producing the Live Earth Journey virtual pavilion.
About the Better Co-Being Virtual Pavilion
Web3 technologies are used to propose a new way to preserve memories for a wide range of visitors.
Better Co-Being Journal to connect the memories of visitors
To achieve a new way of preserving memories, visitors to the pavilion are able to upload photos they have taken at the venue to a special website and create their own “Better Co-Being Journal” with collages including stamps and text. The journals created can be submitted for display in the Gallery in the virtual space. SBTs6 are added to these images so that visitors can preserve memories in the form of their own original data.
Gate, Galaxy, and Gallery virtual spaces
Gate is an entrance where the “Diverse Sphere”—representing the bright future of society brought about by the resonance of diverse lives—floats in the air. Galaxy and Gallery have been created as spaces of resonance, with Galaxy displaying a journal bringing together the thoughts of the pavilion’s producer, Hiroaki Miyata, and all of its sponsoring companies, and the Gallery displaying selected Better Co-Being Journals created by visitors.
Points and gifts available to users of the EXPO2025 Digital Wallet
Better Co-Being is linked to the EXPO2025 Digital Wallet. Visitors can receive 30,000 exp for the MYAKU-MYAKU Rewards Program7 by creating a Better Co-Being Journal and adding an SBT to it. In addition, 10 visitors who submit their journal for display in the virtual pavilion will receive gifts in a planned prize draw. (Submissions received from April 3 to June 13, 2025)
About the Better Co-Being Signature Pavilion
Thematic project: Resonance of Lives
Producer: Hiroaki Miyata (Professor, School of Medicine, Keio University
TOPPAN Holdings is sponsoring the pavilion as a Bronze Partner and providing the Better Co-Being Journal as a new way of creating memories using Web3 technologies in the virtual pavilion. TOPPAN Holdings is also producing the Better Co-Being virtual pavilion.
TOPPAN Holdings’ Sponsorship of Expo 2025
In addition to contributing to the Future Society Showcase Project at Expo 2025 through the Automatic Translation System as part of the Digital Expo, TOPPAN Holdings is sponsoring two of the thematic project Signature Pavilions—Live Earth Journey (theme: Totality of Life), produced by Shoji Kawamori, and Better Co-Being (theme: Resonance of Lives), produced by Hiroaki Miyata. TOPPAN Holdings is also sponsoring the Zero Gravity Art installation that enables visitors to experience the “birth of life” and the “future of life,” a permanent exhibit in the Future Life Expo / Future Life Experience of the Future Society Showcase Project.
1. Signature Pavilions: The thematic projects are a core feature of Expo 2025. The pavilions created by eight experts are called Signature Pavilions because they are signature works that explore the philosophies of each theme. The eight thematic project producers interpret and expand upon Expo 2025’s main theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives” from their own unique perspectives and create pavilions that connect to people living in the future. “Signature Pavilion” is a trademark of the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition.
2. “Live Earth Journey” is a trademark of the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition.
3. “Better Co-Being” is a trademark of the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition.
4. Virtual Expo~Yumeshima Islands in the Sky~ is the virtual site of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan. Visitors can immerse themselves in the world of the Expo as avatars, navigating pavilions and event facilities that are reproductions of actual buildings, while enjoying unique exhibitions and events developed by each exhibitor—experiences that are only possible in the virtual world. Look forward to a six-month journey where you will travel with people from all over the world and explore a future society for our lives.
???Scheduled for release on April 3, 2025
???Supported devices/platforms: smartphones/tablets (iOS/Android), PCs (Windows/Mac), and VR goggles (Meta Quest 2, 3)
???App download site: https://www.expo2025.or.jp/en/future-index/virtual/virtual-site/#download
5. “INOCHI-DAMA” is a trademark of Vector Vision and producer Shoji Kawamori.
6. Soulbound tokens (SBTs) are a type of non-transferable NFT.
7. MYAKU-MYAKU Rewards Program: In the Expo’s digital wallet reward program, users can collect experience points (exp) and get special rewards at the venue by meeting certain conditions, such as using Expo-related services and participating in events.
