Minister of Foreign Affairs Oana Țoiu welcomed, on August 12, 2025, live from Bucharest via videoconference, the 500,000th visitor to the Romania Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka. The event marked a milestone, underscoring the appeal and relevance of Romania’s message at Expo 2025 Osaka and confirming the success of our country’s participation in the world’s largest international public diplomacy event of the year.
“Romania Pavilion is ranked among the most appreciated at the Expo, placing in the Top 10 Pavilions. The concert by the ‘George Enescu’ Philharmonic of Bucharest was a highlight, especially as this autumn we are hosting the Enescu Festival, and the promotion of Romania’s youth has contributed to the theme of future societies. There should be no conflict between tradition and innovation in how we choose to represent Romania.”
On this occasion, the Minister and the Commissioner General of the Romania Pavilion, Ferdinand Nagy, invited all Pavilion visitors to discover Romania, to see that our country is just as beautiful and diverse as the story we share at Expo 2025 Osaka.
“At the same time, this moment also reflects our wish to deepen the bonds of friendship and cooperation between Romania and Japan, built on mutual respect, cultural exchange and lasting partnerships.”
The 500,000th visitor, 27-year-old Aoi Moriyama, received from Romania Pavilion team a symbolic prize consisting of traditional handmade crafts created by Romanian artisans, each piece carrying part of our country’s cultural heritage and identity.
Romania’s participation in Expo 2025 Osaka marks the 25th time our country has taken part in a world expo, under the theme “Romania, Land of Tomorrow,” in the “Saving Lives” section. In line with this theme, the national pavilion’s architectural project was designed by Georgiana Muraru and Anca Bodoloacă, two architecture students, and was selected through a competition organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning.
The Pavilion’s daily program includes artistic performances by students from the National University of Music Bucharest and Transylvania University of Brașov. Students from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures – Japanese Language Department, who are fluent in Japanese, facilitate communication with the public, presenting the 26 daily musical moments and creative workshops.
Romania is also present in Osaka with research and innovation projects such as ELI-NP – the world’s most powerful laser with applications in medicine and nuclear physics; the MAVIS artificial heart – a revolutionary solution developed by 38 students from the Faculty of Medical Bioengineering and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Medicine in Iași, for patients with severe heart failure; and NerveRepack – an intelligent neural system for bidirectional connection with exoprostheses and exoskeletons, a Horizon research project co-funded by the EU, which developed the Bionic Hand project, coordinated by the National Institute for Microtechnology IMT-Romania.
In addition, during the summer, Romania is the only country to offer free mineral water to visitors on extremely hot days, with the support of AUR’A Mineral Water.
In the four months since its opening, Romania’s national pavilion has hosted over 6,840 micro-recitals and creative workshops. The program will continue until the close of Expo 2025, on October 13, 2025, featuring “Madrigal – Marin Constantin” National Chamber Choir, “Radu Stanca” National Theatre of Sibiu and the Orchestra of the Bucharest National Opera.