In a recent essay published in Japanese magazine an-an, Hideo Kojima reflected on the impact the 1970 Osaka World Expo had on his life and career as creator. Although he’d only just become a grade schooler at the time, Kojima described the event as a formative experience that shaped his worldview and creativity to the point that his later works, including Metal Gear and Death Stranding, would not have existed without it.
As he lived near the Expo site, Kojima said he visited the event numerous times. “I experienced up close the ‘future and harmony of the world,’” he wrote. “Getting to ‘shake hands’ and ‘say hello’ to people like Taro Okamoto, Sakyo Komatsu, Kenzo Tange, Kisho Kurokawa, Junko Koshino, and Hanae Mori, was a shocking ‘Close Encounter of the Third Kind’ for me.” Interestingly, Kojima refers to the 1970 Expo as a dividing line between his life’s “personal B.C and A.D.”
He emphasizes that the Expo’s true greatness was not just in its cutting-edge technology and visions of life in the future, but in its diversity. “It also showed me the coexistence of different countries, races, religions, customs, and histories. It was the embodiment of ‘the past and future,’ ‘the world and harmony’ itself.” Kojima concludes that without it, his “futuristic mindset and globalism would have never developed, and as a result, Metal Gear and Death Stranding would not have come into being either.
On the other hand, reflecting on this year’s Osaka Expo 2025, Kojima seems disappointed with what he sees as a lack of ambition and futuristic vision compared to 1970’s event. He was even approached by the government’s preparatory committee for ideas, but it seems his proposals were too ambitious for Expo 2025’s budget.
