فهرست مطالب
Incident details:
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Cause: Power outage on the Osaka Metro Chuo Line, the only direct subway line connecting the city center to the exhibition site on the artificial island of Yumeshima.
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Time of occurrence: Train service stopped at approximately 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night (30 minutes before the exhibition’s usual closing time).
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Time to return to normal: Chuo Line service fully resumed the next morning.
Effects and consequences:
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Trapped: According to organizers, about 30,000 people were at the fairgrounds as of 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night. Although the exact number of people trapped is unknown, it is believed that many visitors and exhibition staff were forced to stay overnight.
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Human casualties: Local authorities announced that as of Thursday morning, 36 people had been taken to the hospital for suspected heatstroke or other complications, fortunately none of which were serious.
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Delayed opening: Organizers pushed back the opening time of the exhibition on Thursday by an hour (to 10 a.m.) following the overnight chaos. However, the exhibition doors eventually opened at 9:30 a.m. to a large crowd that had gathered.
Officials’ reaction:
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“We regret that many people had to go through a difficult time,” a senior official from the Japan Association for World Expo 2025 said in an apology at a news conference on Thursday.
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Osaka Metro Co. also apologized at a separate news conference, saying the outage was caused by a problem with the “third rail,” the electrical conductor along the tracks.
How to fix the problem:
The problem was fixed after workers removed the covering on the wires connected to the third rail. It is possible that iron dust or other materials on the covering had caused the short circuit.
Visitor status:
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After the subway was shut down, visitors who were planning to exit through the east gate (directly connected to Yumeshima Station) were asked to stay inside.
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As midnight approached, rows of people could be seen under the exhibition’s massive wooden structure known as the “Grand Ring.”
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Several booths were made available as shelters for stranded people until late.
Personal experiences:
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Koichiro Ishihara, 45, from Osaka, spent the night with his two daughters, ages 6 and 3, on the artificial grass next to the electricity booth near the east gate. “It wasn’t realistic to go home amidst the crowds with small children ,” he said, noting that luckily the weather wasn’t bad.
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Takashi Yamaguchi (69) and his wife Yoshiko from Nara Prefecture complained of pain after sleeping on a bench inside one of the exhibition buildings for several hours. They said they didn’t know where to wait until an announcement about available spaces was made after midnight.
Importance of the Chuo Subway Line:
Given that the Chuo Line is the only direct subway line to the exhibition site, according to the operator, about 70 percent of visitors use this line.
Footnote: The Osaka World Expo is open from 13 April to 13 October 2025, and its normal opening hours are from 9 am to 10 pm.