How the Osaka Expo 2025 Can Spark Environmental Awareness
- SORA MATSUO
- 7月24日
- 読了時間: 3分
July 24, 2025
Sora Matsuo
At the Osaka Expo in 2025, various companies exhibit products that contribute to society through the “Co-design Challenge program.” Edish, which is Marubeni Corporation’s recyclable tableware focusing on ocean issues. Edish establishes an upcycling process and has the advantage of being ecological. Edish is not the first eco-product, rather similar goods were created back in 1998. The core issue is whether people actually use these products.
Environmental Efforts Since the 1998 Nagano Olympics
As far back as 27 years, at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, there was an example of paper plates made from a mixture of apple fiber and pulp that would normally be discarded at a factory. Why were environmentally friendly plates manufactured and used instead of using regular plates? This has to do with the UNFCCC（United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP 1), which was signed in 1992 at Rio de Janeiro. This was to implement initiatives to prevent global warming caused by the increase in greenhouse gases, and it was the catalyst for the “environment” to be explicitly included in the “sport and culture” that had been a pillar of the Olympic Movement by the IOC (International Olympic Committee).
Since then, the series of international agreements, including the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the Paris Agreement in 2015, and the launch and implementation of SDGs, which set a target deadline of 2030, have changed environmental awareness from a global scale to the scale of individual countries and companies, and in recent years, each and every person living today has become familiar with the environment.
Turning Awareness into Eco-Friendly Action
However, the challenge is that Japan is one of the few countries that are less aware of the climate change issue. A Boston Consulting Group survey results showed that many Japanese consumers had a low awareness and understanding of the issue. According to the evidence of the Consumer Affairs Agency, only 27.4% of Japanese consumers were aware of the term “ethical consumption” in 2024. However, only 4.7% of them “practice it often,” which meant that although they talked about it, it is not a part of their daily activities as many people had an image of climate change measures as being expensive, time-consuming, and uncertain about actionable steps. Nevertheless, due to changes in society’s overall awareness of the issue, environmentally-friendly products are on the rise and easily accessible.
“Eco”: A Buzzword or a Choice?
The key question is how many people will consume eco-friendly products instead of existing products.The words “ethical” and “sustainable” may be buzzing on social networking sites, but what actually appears on the dinner table are the usual plastic containers. It seems that there is still a deep divide between “conscious posts” and "shopping carts.” Even if companies continue to create ecological products to fulfill their mission of contributing to society, the problem will become more serious if people don’t actually use these products. Therefore, what we must now consider is how many people will take ethical considerations into account when making choices. In this current situation, the Osaka Expo may be expected to serve as a trigger for awareness of the problem to inspire more people to learn about the new products produced by Japanese companies and try to take actions that will lead to the future.
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