Mark Byrnes

Crowds queue up for events at various pavilions during the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka on May 21, 2025. The number of foreign visitors to Japan soared 28.5 percent in April year-on-year to a record 3.91 million, official figures showed on May 21. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)

Do world fairs still matter?

Like its predecessors in Paris and New York, Osaka’s World Expo is supposed to be a showcase of global progress. An expo...