Expo 70 Commemorative Park

In 1970 Osaka hosted the Japan World Exposition, the first World Expo in Asia, which drew over sixty million visitors and became a defining moment of postwar Japan. The site in Suita, north of the city, was turned into Expo '70 Commemorative Park, a green expanse of about 260 hectares, and one building was kept as its symbol: the Tower of the Sun, by the avant-garde artist Taro Okamoto. It is around seventy meters tall, a white, arm-spread figure with three faces: the golden face at the top representing the future, the Face of the Sun on the front for the present, and the Black Sun on the back for the past. It is strange, funny and moving, and people who know it only from photos are usually surprised by its presence. Since 2018 the interior has been open again for the first time in decades: inside, the Tree of Life, a towering sculpture hung with models of creatures tracing evolution from single cells to humans, rises through the hollow body, and a recreated Underground Sun, a fourth face lost after the expo, glows in the prologue space. Entry to the interior is by reservation, which is given priority, and is worth booking in advance. The rest of the park is for wandering: the Natural and Cultural Gardens, with seasonal flowers, woods, streams and broad lawns; the Japanese Garden, one of the government's own exhibits at the expo, with ponds and tea houses; and the EXPO '70 Pavilion, a small museum of the expo's futuristic optimism. The National Museum of Ethnology, one of the best museums of world cultures in Japan, and the Japan Folk Crafts Museum Osaka are also inside the park.

Seasons and events. The park is one of the best cherry-blossom spots in the Osaka area in spring, with long rows of trees, and the autumn color in the Japanese Garden is excellent. Rose, hydrangea and tulip displays fill other months, and festivals and flea markets use the lawns at weekends. In summer the open spaces are hot, so come early. Hours are generally 9:30am to 5pm with last entry at 4:30pm, and the park closes on Wednesdays except in spring through Golden Week and in October and November, when it opens daily. Admission to the park and Japanese Garden is a few hundred yen for adults and free for children of junior-high age and under; the Tower of the Sun interior and the EXPO '70 Pavilion charge separately.

Getting there. Take the Midosuji subway line north to Senri-Chuo and change to the Osaka Monorail for Banpaku-kinen-koen Station, about five minutes' walk from the park; from Umeda the trip takes around forty minutes. The monorail ride, with the tower rising into view, is part of the fun. Across the monorail tracks, the EXPOCITY shopping and entertainment complex has restaurants, a giant Ferris wheel and the NIFREL living museum, which is useful with children and on rainy afternoons.

A note on the newer expo. Osaka hosted another World Expo in 2025, on the artificial island of Yumeshima in the bay; that site is now being redeveloped and is not a visitor attraction. Expo '70 Park is where you come for the story of the city's first expo, and the Tower of the Sun is still the more famous symbol. Allow three to four hours for the tower, a garden and a museum, or a full day if you add the ethnology museum.