A MAN was admitted to the World Expo in Japan with a ticket to a 1940 event that was called off as war escalated, organisers said.
Tickets for the “Grand International Exposition of Japan” in Tokyo were released in 1938 but the event was postponed indefinitely as Japan became embroiled in World War II.
Organisers of Expo 2025 in the western city of Osaka, which opened last month and runs until mid-October, said in a statement they had decided to admit holders of tickets to the 1940 event.
They exchanged one of the old tickets for two one-day Expo 2025 passes, the statement said.
Local media reported that the 1940 ticket-holder was 25-year-old Fumiya Takenawa, who lives in Tokyo but was visiting his parents’ home in Osaka.
Takenawa is a collector of expo-related memorabilia and in March he purchased the 1940 ticket online, the Mainichi Shimbun daily and other outlets reported.
They published a photograph of him smiling and holding up the old ticket, which features an elaborate red and black design. — AFP
