2025 Expo Osaka: 30,000 Visitors Left Behind at Venue; Osaka Metro Apologizes at Press Conference

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:47 JST, August 14, 2025

Osaka Metro held a press conference Thursday morning to explain how the Chuo Line, which directly connects to the Osaka-Kansai Expo site, was suspended on all lines Wednesday night.

Osaka Metro officials apologized at the beginning of the press conference, saying, “We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused to visitors and other concerned parties.”

The cause of the trouble was a power outage on the transmission rail used to operate the trains between Cosmosquare and Osaka Port stations. Operations stopped around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, just before the Expo closed, and resumed about eight hours later at 5:25 a.m. Thursday.

According to the Japan Association for the International Exposition, some 30,000 people were left behind in and around the venue, forcing many to spend the night there.