Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai PASONA NATUREVERSE

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EXPO 2025 OSAKA, KANSAI, JAPAN
Schedule: April 13 to October 13, 2025

Pasona Group to Exhibit the "PASONA NATUREVERSE" Pavilion at EXPO 2025 OSAKA, KANSAI, JAPAN

Pasona Group's job is to harness the potential of the individual.
The company aims to realize a society where everyone can play an active role in a healthy and lively manner.

"Thank You, Life."

Through the pavilion, Pasona Group aspires to create a world in which all people, from children to the elderly, are honored and filled with gratitude for life.

Our society is a part of the natural world, and humanity's continued existence is thanks to nature.

However, at some point, we seem to have started to take this for granted and forgotten our sense of gratitude.

We ought instead to embrace the wish to create and leave to the next generation a world where we can exchange thanks for the life made possible by the bountiful blessings of nature.

Pasona Group’s hope is to see many people from all over the world visit its pavilion and become creators of the future, coming together to create the "Natureverse" (Nature × Universe) in which gratitude resonates.

Pavillion PASONA NATUREVERSE

Pavilion Name

PASONA NATUREVERSE

Pavilion Concept

"Thank You, Life."

From the birth of life to the present, our hearts have been the link to "life".
The Pasona Group Pavilion "PASONA NATUREVERSE", based on the concept "Thank you, Life", welcomes Dr. Yoshiki Sawa, Professor Emeritus of Osaka University, a leading expert in regenerative medicine using iPS cells, as Executive Producer. The pavilion will feature a variety of exhibits under the theme of "Body, Mind, and Bonds," including state-of-the-art technologies such as iPS cell-derived cardiac tissue sheets that restore the heart, a symbol of life.

Pavilion Theme

1. Body: Medical / Food

Creating a healthy body through the latest medical care and food.
*As Executive Producer of the pavilion, Dr. Yoshiki Sawa, Professor Emeritus of Osaka University and leading expert in regenerative medicine using iPS cells, will participate in the exhibit production.

2. Mind: Life Purpose / Compassion

Many things have occurred in our society since the start of the pandemic. Now is the time to create a spiritually rich society in which everyone can think about their future based on the spirit of "compassion," and which is full of diversity and purpose in life.

3. Bonds: Work / Mutual Aid

Creating a truly prosperous society in which all people can work vibrantly and live happily, in other words, a "society of mutual assistance" and a "mutual society".

Dr. Yoshiki Sawa
Executive producer of the exhibition

Graduated from Osaka University School of Medicine in 1980
Professor Emeritus of Osaka University
Director of Osaka Police Hospital
President of the Japan Society for Japan Regenerative Medicine
Authority in cardiovascular surgery and regenerative medicine
First in the world to commercialize myocardial regenerative medicine; pushed for heart sheets to be covered by insurance, first successful human myocardial regeneration therapy using iPS cells.

Message from Yasuyuki Nambu
Group CEO of Pasona Group Inc,

"Towards the realization of a society of well-being"

The Pasona Group will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its founding in 2025, the same year in which the Osaka Kansai Expo will be held. What issue is society facing today? Is it not health: physical, mental, and social health? The society in a state of well-being that emerges out of the combination of these three represents the future we are aiming for.

Professor Yoshiki Sawa, a leading figure in iPS cell-based regenerative medicine, shared this way of thinking. It was my meeting him that led to my decision to exhibit a pavilion at the Osaka Kansai Expo.

Yasuyuki Nambu Group CEO of Pasona Group Inc,

Food is crucial to physical health. We are also engaged in agriculture focused on soil conditioning that utilizes the power of microorganisms. Food raised in the rich soil of the land under the sun supports human health.
Should we not take better care of nature, be grateful for it, and restore it to its natural abundance?
Now, against this background, we named our pavilion at the Osaka Kansai Expo "PASONA NATUREVERSE." And the concept of the pavilion was "Thank You, Life."
NATUREVERSE is an expression that combines the words "nature" and "universe."
It incorporates our desire to create a world that respects the importance of nature, to express gratitude for the abundant blessings given to people by nature, and to create a world reverberating with "thank you. " Since the industrial revolution, the rapid evolution of technology has damaged nature and caused environmental problems. Technology should actually evolve to promote an abundant nature and people's health. More than anything else, the harmony between nature and technology is of absolute importance.

Also of importance is that, for the sake of mental and societal health, society possesses the neighborly spirit of helping each other out—that it should be a "mutual society" where compassion is paramount. Among the most-important qualities for people are, indeed, this compassion along with spiritual richness and others. To the extent that we have these, we can claim true affluence.

After the Expo, the pavilion will be moved as a legacy to Awaji Island. Through the pavilion "PASONA NATUREVERSE," Pasona Group will continue to communicate to the world a society in a state of well-being; that is, one that achieves physical, mental, and societal health. It will also communicate the form of a truly affluent society where all members can be active in spiritually rich and vibrant ways.

Pavilion
Architecture Design Concept

The Spiral of Life: From Ammonite to iPS Heart

The architectural design of the pavilion adopts the spiral shape of ammonites as a symbol of life. Ammonites, which lived approximately 400 million years ago and thrived for a long period of time, overcoming three periods of mass extinction, including the Ice Age, can be regarded as our "predecessors of life". The natural world contains countless spirals of varying scales, as seen in cosmic nebulae and typhoons on the macro scale and in DNA on the micro scale. This spiral has been placed as a symbol of an affluent society, where people connect with each other toward the pavilion's goal of a world where gratitude for life resonates.

Through its exhibition, Pasona Group aims for visitors to be filled with a gratitude for life through learning about the history of life, and experiencing the wisdom of mankind that sustains life and the design of the future society.

Architectural Design: Mr. Satoshi Itasaka, architect

After working at Kidosaki Architects Studio, he founded the design labo inc. in 2012, which engages in a wide range of creative activities, including architectural and product design.

Structure Overview

Site area	3,514.42m
Building area	2,321.43㎡
Total floor area	2,284.87㎡
Maximum height	16.755m
Building construction	Steel structure
Floor	2

Life History Zone : What is the "Tree of Life Evolution"

The pavilion's "Life History Zone" features a large tree that represents the evolution of life. Like strata, the rings inside the trunk represent the history of evolution. Continuing underground, the trunk and roots represent profound time. The branches extending out from the trunk represent the infinite possibilities of the future, and the windows give us a partial glimpse of Earth's future. The tree will express the possibilities for the power held by people, the grandness of the power of nature, and the dynamics of evolution.

Supervisor: Mr. Takashi Ikegami

Professor, Department of General Systems Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo In 1989, became a Doctor of Science (Physics) at the Graduate School of Science of the University of Tokyo. Following post-doctoral work at Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University and Los Alamos National Laboratory, was appointed assistant professor at the Graduate School of Science of Kobe University. Appointed assistant professor in 1994 and professor in 2007 at his current affiliation. Specializes in complex systems science and artificial life research. Also active as an artist. In 2017, founded Alternative Machine Inc. (current project realized with the full cooperation of Alternative Machine Inc.).

iPS Heart Exhibition

As established technology, iPS cells and iPS myocardial sheets are being utilized. At this exhibit, a three-dimensional heart is shown, created from living cells employing biomaterials and bioengineering. An actually-beating iPS heart in a culture solution will be on exhibit, demonstrating to the world the potential of new technologies that are creating the future of medicine and life sciences.

iPS heart currently under development (provided by Cuorips Inc.)

iPS heart exhibit (illustration)

Comment by Yoshiki Sawa (executive producer)

In collaboration with Cuorips Inc., a leading regenerative medicine startup company, PASONA NATUREVERSE is conducting research & development with a view toward exhibiting an iPS heart created from iPS cells as a "symbol of life".
With the aim of showing visitors a realistic moving heart, PASONA NATUREVERSE will exhibit a three-dimensional and dynamic cardiac muscle model. This attempt at the dynamic exhibition of a three-dimensional model of an iPS cell-based heart may well be a world-first. With the aim of putting on an exhibition that displays the potential of regenerative medicine technology and that lets visitors experience the grandeur and excitement of life, we will pursue further development in preparation for the opening of the exhibition in April 2025.

Pavilion navigator

Pavilion navigator :
Astro Boy

Astro Boy, a robot with a heart, will make an appearance as general navigator. To fulfil the pavilion aims of a world reverberating with thanks and a "mutual society" (i.e., a truly affluent society in which everyone is interconnected), Astro Boy, who symbolizes the coexistence of humans and science & technology, will act as a guide for visitors at the pavilion. We hope that by joining Astro Boy in learning about the history of life, experiencing the wisdom of humanity that supports life, and interacting with the design of a future society, visitors will feel gratitude for life.

Pavilion navigator :
Black Jack

Black Jack is a gifted surgeon who will be the navigator for the "Body (Future Medicine)" exhibition area. Here, a variety of the latest technologies related to "Body (Future Medicine)" will be presented, including an iPS myocardial sheet, developed by executive producer, Yoshiki Sawa, for creating a heart that symbolizes life. Black Jack, who has an acutely strong desire to help patients, asks, "What is life?" and "What is human happiness?" Black Jack's figure also connects to the overall theme of the pavilion, i.e., the shape that a truly affluent society should take.

VIDEO LIBRARY

May 30, 2022 Private Sector Pavilion Exhibitor Announcement
Yasuyuki Nambu, Pasona Group CEO, presenting the concept and three themes

Oct. 4, 2023 Private Sector Pavilion Concept Announcement