Japan’s World Expo: a positive vision of the future for our divided world?

Fifty-five years since Osaka last hosted, rocks from Mars, domestic androids and artificial hearts are part of showcase on unloved' island

As clunky as it sounds, designing a future society for our lives" isn't a bad ambition for the world in these troubled times. From this Sunday, organisers of the 2025 Exposition in Osaka will be hoping that appeal will put the event's unsettled preparations in the shade for a six-month celebration of our common humanity.

The western Japan city is preparing to host its second World Expo, 55 years after the first was held in a country eager to capitalise on fading memories of the second world war as it embarked on its postwar journey to become an industrial and technological powerhouse.