Portugal Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka

The 37th World Expo is currently being held in Osaka (大阪), Japan, from April to October this year. This is only the fourth World Expo to be held in Asia (if we don’t count Australia) since the first one in London in 1851: Osaka in 1970, Aichi (愛知) in 2005, Shanghai (上海) in 2010, and now again in Osaka in 2025. World Expos are much larger in scale and longer in duration than “Specialized Expos”, such as the Expo ’98 in Lisbon which commemorated the 500th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's arrival in India in 1498.

The Portugal Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka

I took my family to Osaka this week, the first World Expo for all of us. We first visited the Canada Pavilion which was near the entrance, and as fate would have it, the Portugal Pavilion was right next door (Luso-Canadians will be pleased!). While the Canada Pavilion was about ice, life in the Great White North, and space, the Portugal Pavilion embodied the country’s maritime heritage and commitment to sustainability. Designed by famed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma (隈研吾), it features an undulating facade inspired by the ocean's movement, constructed with suspended ropes and recycled nets. The theme of the Portugal Pavilion is “Ocean, The Blue Dialogue”, an echo of Expo ’98 in Lisbon which was about "The Oceans, a Heritage for the Future".

Inside, Portugal Pavilion highlights the almost 500 years of relations between the Portuguese and the Japanese people, as well as the environmental challenges of today’s oceans.

The Cantino Planisphere (1502)

One exhibit puts the spotlight on the Cantino Planisphere, a Portuguese world map that the Duke of Ferrara arranged to be stolen and smuggled to Italy in 1502. Although this was barely four years after Da Gama arrived in India, the map, using modern techniques that broke with medieval Ptolemaic cartography, shows the coasts of Brazil, Greenland, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. Malacca shows up on an exaggerated Malay Peninsula that the Portuguese had not yet seen with their own eyes, showing their efforts to integrate geographic knowledge from non-European sources. After conquering Malacca in 1511, then reaching China in 1513, it wasn’t until 1543 that the Portuguese “discovered” Japan quite accidentally.

An animated version of a 17th century Namban screen depicting Portuguese merchants in Japan

Another exhibit features the early depictions of the Portuguese by Japanese artists in Namban (南蛮) art. Namban literally means “Southern Barbarian” as the Portuguese first showed up in the far south of Japan. A historical fact that was visible but not called out in the pavilion is that this was also Japan’s first encounter with Africans.

The most interesting exhibit for many Japanese would have been this video below on the Portuguese origins of many Japanese words. Here’s an earlier post that provides a more comprehensive list. Enjoy!

The Portugal Pavilion, led by AICEP, was created with the goal of receiving 1.4 million visitors; at the halfway mark in July, it has already seen over 1 million people pass through its exhibits, an incredible success given that the overall Expo 2025 Osaka has not been meeting expectations so far in terms of visitors. As a result of this, the small souvenir store at the exit of the pavilion had completely run out of merchandise when I visited. Nice to be sold out, but I hope they get new stock soon!

P.S. ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website in the world, listed the Portugal Pavilion among the Top 10 Must-Visit Pavilions at Expo 2025 Osaka. Parabéns Portugal!