Grand Opening! Highlights of the Sumitomo Pavilion
Hello from the Sumitomo Pavilion.
In April 13, 2025, the “Sumitomo Pavilion” welcomed its grand opening at EXPO2025 Kansai, Osaka, Japan.
The Sumitomo Group will orchestrate the wisdom, technology, and talent that it has built throughout the years to address social issues through the collective power of the group. We hope to turn the pavilion into a place of gathering and conversation, inspired by fantastic entertainment and exhibitions that stir emotion, spurs change, and creates hope for the future.
We have gathered the “highlights” of the Sumitomo Pavilion as we welcome its grand opening.
We look forward to seeing you there.
UNKNOWN FOREST パフォーミングシアター
古よりこの森を見守ってきたマザーツリーの“いのち輝く最期の姿”を大迫力の演出で
Inside the forest awaits various “stories of life” that we humans have overlooked and have been left unknown. Here, there are animals hiding, traces left behind by different creatures, conversations by trees held in the ground, and the life of a centuries-old tree unfolding before your eyes. Furthermore, visitors can enjoy discovering “stories of life” found throughout the forest through an interactive experience of their lantern reacting to glittering fungi, voices of animals usually unheard to man, and an action of their own.
✳︎To learn how to book a visit to the UNKNOWN FOREST, go to the EXPO2025 Kansai, Osaka Official Website EXPO 2025 Visitors
UNKNOWN FOREST Performing Theater
Dynamic performance of the Mother Tree, the ancient keeper of the forest, and her “last glimmer of life”
Mother Tree has supported and nurtured the UNKNOWN FOREST since ancient times. The stage follows the Mother Tree’s journey from her beginnings as a tiny seed that awoke in the dark warm soil and eventually grew into the keeper of the forest. Fragments of her memory are found in the story as we join her in her last moment. A gentle wind and mist float in the space, a “Performing Theater” that is approximately 20 meters in width and 7.5 meters in height. On this stage, performers, sound, and imagery come together in the dynamic finale of the UNKNOWN FOREST.
✳︎To learn how to book a visit to the UNKNOWN FOREST, go to the EXPO2025 Kansai, Osaka Official Website EXPO 2025 Visitors
UNKNOWN FOREST Performing Theater
Dynamic performance of the Mother Tree, the ancient keeper of the forest, and her “last glimmer of life”
“The Sumitomo Forest” has been treasured by Sumitomo across centuries. This is a “tree planting experience” where people can take part in creating a future forest here at the Sumitomo Pavilion that was built with the trees of this forest, planted and nurtured by our predecessors. Participants can come into touch with seedlings and soil as the plant the trees and learn about man’s relationship with the forest and the importance of forest circulation. The experience will serve as an opportunity for participants to see the forest and nature and think to the future. The approximately 10,000 seedlings prepared throughout the EXPO term will be transplanted in the “Sumitomo Forest”, including the area where trees used for building the Sumitomo Pavilion have been logged. Here, they will be passed on into the future across decades and centuries.
✳︎To learn how to book a PLANT A TREE experience, go to the EXPO2025 Kansai, Osaka Official Website EXPO 2025 Visitors
Seeds for the Future
An interactive project where ideas for the future are created together with the Sumitomo Group
his is a large-scale interactive project where ideas for the future are created one after the other with people around the world and the Sumitomo Group. The ideas based on over 700 “Sumitomo Group technologies and initiatives” and have been created using generative AI to address common challenges faced by man in the hopes of creating a brighter future, have been named “Seeds for the Future.” Inside the Sumitomo Pavilion, the technologies and initiatives of the Sumitomo Group are exhibited together with the Seeds for the Future born from them. A special website is also available where anyone can create ideas from anywhere.
“Seeds for the Future” Special Site
Official Shop “UNKNOWN FOREST SHOP”
Shop offering merchandise made from trees of the Sumitomo Forest along with Sumitomo Pavilion original goods
The Sumitomo Pavilion Official Shop can be found inside the pavilion. The shop offers products made from the trees of the Sumitomo Forest, “UNKNOWN FOREST” merchandise, original products incorporating the Sumitomo Group’s state of the art technology, and other Sumitomo Pavilion exclusive merchandise. The Sumitomo Pavilion official goods are available for purchase, only at this shop. (Excluding selected products.)
The merchandise is introduced at this page
Virtual Sumitomo Pavilion
A virtual experience of the Sumitomo Group’s 400-year history and its challenges toward the future
The Virtual Sumitomo Pavilion is a digital space where users can experience the Sumitomo Group’s 400-year history and its challenges toward the future. Visitors can explore through a forest of trees shaped like the Sumitomo Pavilion’s symbol mark and go into a cave inspired by the tunnels of the “Besshi Copper Mines” and learn about the history of these mines that served as the foundation for the Sumitomo Group’s development. Additionally, users can discover countless ideas that open the door to the future and so much more. The Virtual Sumitomo Pavilion experience will create an opportunity for users to learn about how to live in harmony with nature, address social issues, and discover hints for the future.
✳︎Go to the Virtual Sumitomo Pavilion from the “EXPO 2025 Virtual Expo: Yumeshima Island in the Sky” official app. The experience is accessible from PCs, smart phones, and VR goggles.
✳︎You can also go to the Virtual Sumitomo Pavilion from here
Construction of the Sumitomo Pavilion
Made from approximately 1,000 trees from the Sumitomo Forest
The Sumitomo Pavilion is constructed using approximately 1,000 trees from the Sumitomo Forest including cedar that was planted at the 1970 EXPO and cypress that is more than 50 years old. Based on the concept of “valuing each life, one tree at a time”, the trees that have been nurtured across centuries were cut into thin strips using a rotary cutter in order to ensure that the tree was used without waste. The building design is inspired by the “Besshi Mountains of Shikoku”, that served as the foundation of the group’s development. The entrance façade features wood installed in layers to express tree rings and geological layers.
