Princess Victoria of Sweden's Official Visit to Japan: April 5-10, 2005

[Dennism]

TOKYO — Swedish Crown Princess Victoria and Industry and Trade Minister Thomas Östros will visit Japan in April to attend the Swedish national day at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture, Swedish Embassy officials said Wednesday.

Sweden, together with four other Nordic countries, will present a joint Nordic exhibition pavilion at the Aichi Expo under the theme "The Oasis in the North," which focuses on design, the environment and energy, the officials said. (Kyodo News)

There is more about the expo here

[Dennism]

Sights Old and New at Aichi Expo 05

World´s Fair organizers just hope they will see crowds.


AP

Nagakute, Japan - Imagine a future where robots work as receptionists and street cleaners, and cities build walls of vegetation to combat global warming. Or better, check out this year's World's Fair, where caring for the environment goes hand in hand with technological innovation.

The fair, opening Friday in the central Japanese prefecture of Aichi, also will boast something from the past: a 10,000-year-old Siberian woolly mammoth.

Aichi Expo 2005 plans to display an almost perfectly preserved head of the mammoth, complete with majestic, curved tusks and tufts of fur protruding from its gray skin, which scientists excavated from the Siberian tundra in June.

"Expos must address issues of global concern," Toshio Nakamura, the secretary-general of this exposition, said. "We are focusing on things you experience - what you can do only if you come to the venue."

Despite the presence of an ancient beast and grand visions of high-tech urbanites flourishing side by side with nature, organizers have set a low bar for the fair's success, given the poor track records of the last two world expositions.

Nakamura said Aichi fair organizers hoped to draw 15 million visitors by the time the expo closes Sept. 25, including 1.5 million from overseas. This target is far below the 40 million visitors organizers reportedly aimed to attract when the idea for hosting the 2005 exposition was hatched in the late 1980s.

The 2000 exposition in Hanover, Germany, brought in 18 million people, far short of an initially projected 40 million, leaving organizers $1 billion in the red. The German government was stuck paying off two-thirds of the debt.

The 1998 fair in Lisbon, Portugal, drew 10 million visitors, below the 15 million target, and lost nearly $340 million.

Putting on the Aichi exposition has required a large investment: Just building the exhibition site and its pavilions has cost about $3.23 billion.

Local and national governments have also spent billions of dollars constructing a new airport and highways to the site. The private sector, which operates the new international airport serving Nagoya, also pitched in for the extra infrastructure.

It remains to be seen whether people will attend.

As was the case with Hanover, critics are questioning the point of holding a world fair in the age of the Internet and the jet plane.

The earliest world fairs, starting with the first in London in 1851, allowed host nations to showcase their industrial power and gave guest countries the opportunity to introduce themselves to the rest of the globe.

Japan, for one, used the 1873 Vienna exposition to open trade routes with Europe after centuries of near-total isolation.

Today, the curious only need book a plane ticket to travel halfway around the world, or simply surf the Web to explore other cultures and new ideas.

Despite such doubts, the Aichi exposition has attracted pavilions from 122 countries, including the United States, which skipped the Hanover exposition because of a shortage of private-sector financing.

"We've had an overwhelming response," said Lisa Guillermin Gable, the commissioner general of the U.S. exhibition, noting 41 companies and 18 states had signed up as sponsors for the American pavilion.

The U.S. pavilion features a live feed of images from Mars via the Mars Rover - the only place in the world where these shots can be seen by the public - and a model of a fuel-cell car developed by General Motors.

It is the oldest item at the expo that may attract the most attention, however.

Mammoths appeared in Africa about four million years ago and roamed the plains of Siberia for nearly two million years before suddenly dying off 10,000 years ago. Scientists remain divided over the cause of the mammoths' extinction, with theories pointing at human hunters, a killer disease, or climate change.

Experts hope the specimen on display will provide clues to why the beasts became extinct.

[GrandDuchess]

Originally Posted by Dennism

TOKYO — Swedish Crown Princess Victoria and Industry and Trade Minister Thomas Östros

And I still miss the old Minister for Trade & Industry, Leif Pagrotsky, who made such a fantastic team together with Crown Princess Victoria.... *nostalgic* :) (I will try not to repeat this every time it says she's going somewhere with the new minister... )

Crown Princess Victoria and the Minister will travel to Japan withl a little entourage of people whom will represent Sweden at the pavillion for The Sweden Day on 6 April. Among them are a group from Cirkus Cirkör (modern circus), Sahara Hotnights (rock group), Ana (pop singer, she did the theme song for the Spiderman film) and Carl-Einar Häckner (comedian, magician).

[HMQueenElizabethII]

She seems very busy.Thanks for news.

[Danielle]

Originally Posted by GrandDuchess

And I still miss the old Minister for Trade & Industry, Leif Pagrotsky, who made such a fantastic team together with Crown Princess Victoria.... *nostalgic* :) (I will try not to repeat this every time it says she's going somewhere with the new minister... )

Crown Princess Victoria and the Minister will travel to Japan withl a little entourage of people whom will represent Sweden at the pavillion for The Sweden Day on 6 April. Among them are a group from Cirkus Cirkör (modern circus), Sahara Hotnights (rock group), Ana (pop singer, she did the theme song for the Spiderman film) and Carl-Einar Häckner (comedian, magician).

Thank you for the information. Wow. Victoria is quite busy. She flew all the way to Australia, went back home; and now she is flying all the way to Japan, which isn't that far from Australia. Such long trips to make so close to one another. The Sweden Day sounds like a lot of fun. :p

[GrandDuchess]

Originally Posted by Danielle

Thank you for the information. Wow. Victoria is quite busy. She flew all the way to Australia, went back home; and now she is flying all the way to Japan, which isn't that far from Australia

Yes, and soon she's off to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka!

[Lena]

Originally Posted by GrandDuchess

And I still miss the old Minister for Trade & Industry, Leif Pagrotsky, who made such a fantastic team together with Crown Princess Victoria.... *nostalgic* :) (I will try not to repeat this every time it says she's going somewhere with the new minister... )

Crown Princess Victoria and the Minister will travel to Japan withl a little entourage of people whom will represent Sweden at the pavillion for The Sweden Day on 6 April. Among them are a group from Cirkus Cirkör (modern circus), Sahara Hotnights (rock group), Ana (pop singer, she did the theme song for the Spiderman film) and Carl-Einar Häckner (comedian, magician).

What is the source to this? I wonder, because it was also said Victoria would go on the 26th to the Expo in Aichi. I know, that the Sweden day is on the 6th, but I´ve thought she would maybe prefer to travel to Japan from Bangladesh or Sri Lanka...and would give the Swedish pavillion a "second Sweden day" through this.

[GrandDuchess]

Originally Posted by Lena

What is the source to this? I wonder, because it was also said Victoria would go on the 26th to the Expo in Aichi. I know, that the Sweden day is on the 6th, but I´ve thought she would maybe prefer to travel to Japan from Bangladesh or Sri Lanka...and would give the Swedish pavillion a "second Sweden day" through this.

My source is the Government Offices. She won't go on the 26th, only on the 6th - which is the Sweden Day. That previous date was wrong, and it must've been a mix up or something.

[GrandDuchess]

Schedule for Crown Princess Victoria’s visit to Japan, 5-10 April 2005

Wednesday 6 April

*Attendance at Expo 2005 and the official opening of “The Swedish National Day” and a visit to the Japanese pavilion, attendance at the Swedish cultural programme at Dome Theatre
* Press meeting with Swedish and Japanese media
* Opening of an exhibition of Swedish produced things for children at the Matsuzakaya department store in Nagoya

Thursday 7 April

* Visit to the Umezono Primary School in Okazaki (friendship city to Sweden), where she will follow the classes in calligraphy and gymnastics, lunch with students from the school
* Visit to the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Japan
* Dinner with Crown Prince Naruhito in the Akasaka Palace

Friday 8 April

* Attendance at a seminar hosted by The Swedish Care Institute in Tokyo
* Opening of a design exhibition at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo
* Attendance, together with Princess Takamado, when the foundation to a new IKEA store is laid in Yokohama
* Attendance at a reception at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo, attended by Prince and Princess Hitachi (Prince Hitachi is the protector of the Japan-Sweden Society)

Saturday 9 April

* Luncheon with the Emperor and Empress of Japan

[Dennism]

at the Nordic Pavilion of the 2005 World Expo on April 6, 2005 in Nagakute, Aichi prefecture of Japan.

[Dennism]

More from Japan today. Looking gorgeous as usual.

[Dennism]

Two more from this afternoon:

[HMQueenElizabethII]

Thanks so much for photos.Lovelyyy.

[Dennism]

You´re welcome. Yes, they are lovely.

[Danielle]

Great photos. Thanks! While I am not overly fond of these shoes, they are a thousand times better than the other ones (sorry, I just had to bring it up :)). I think we are starting to see "Aussie Victoria" reappear in these photos. Thank goodness! It certainly is a vast improvement from the HCA events. The coat suits her, I think, and the pony tail, although still there, looks a little tidier and less noticeable.

[Dennism]

You´re welcome, Danielle. Here are two more photos.

[Josefine]

I like this dress
will she travel home after japan or go ahead to her tour in asia

[Dennism]

Some more photos from Japan. That´s Minister for Industry and Trade Thomas Östros in the 4th photo.

[Anita]

Princess Victoria is a beautiful girl but I really don't like her wearing glasses . I think that it really doesn't suit her, it makes her appear more old . I wonder why she never wears contact lens ??! Has she an allergy or something like that ?

[Dennism]

More photos from Japan. Victoria visits a Swedish-made toy shop at the expo. Look at that beautiful face in the 2nd photo. She is "psyched" and "ready to rumble" as we say in the American vernacular. Then she must have scored. Måååååål! She screams out!