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Paper short abstract:

This paper spotlights an independent group of Japanese intellectuals who drafted the basic concept for Expo 1970 Osaka ("Progress and Harmony for Mankind"), which has not been discussed academically, with particular attention to the continuity and discontinuity from Expo 1958 Brussels.

Paper long abstract:

As a backdrop of the argument, this paper will first examine the historical background of how Expos became theme-oriented events rather than those for exhibiting commodities; the positive side of this process was the creation of a trend to promote and emphasise “re-humanisation” in Expo 1958 Brussels. However, on the negative side, the Expo under this trend, sparked fury for "exhibiting" people from the Belgian Congo in what is now called “human zoo”. The paper will then review the position of Expo 1970 Osaka, when many African countries emerged from colonial rule.

Responding to the above trend, the theme for Expo 1970 Osaka was defined as "Progress and Harmony for Mankind", and this was referred to in every aspect of preparations for Expo from the designing of the venues to the planning of events. In the background of the discussions that formed the basic concept, which was used as the base for the theme by the Thematic Committee, there was an independent group of Japanese intellectuals who called themselves "Thinkers Group for the Expo", comprised of those who later became Japan’s iconic thinkers including Umesao Tadao and Kato Hidetoshi. The paper’s central objective is to investigate their position in the preparations for this Expo, thus to illuminate the roles that intellectuals in post-war Japan played in the above-mentioned world trend.

Holding the line against what the political and business establishments and society expected for Expo, they discussed ways to make the event meaningful not only in an economic sense, but also as a civilisational festival, and researched and debated specific ways to achieve this. Although the group began as a private gathering of young intellectuals for ‘drinks’ informally combined with discussions for Expo planning, when Japan was officially elected to host Expo 1970 Osaka, this independent group attracted both positive and negative attention from parties involved in Expo, and was eventually drawn into the whirlpool of Expo. Thus, the "Thinkers Group" made a significant contribution to the draft of the basic concept, which can essentially be dubbed the "constitution" of Expo 1970 Osaka.