June 11, 2026

Subcontractors suffering massive financial losses due to the non-payment of fees for constructing foreign pavilions at the “Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai” and their supporters on June 10 submitted more than 33,000 signatures calling for resolving this issue to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism as well as to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Tatsumi Kotaro and JCP member of the House of Councillors Daimon Mikishi joined in this action.

The amount of unpaid fees owed to subcontractors involved in building foreign pavilions for the Osaka-Kansai Expo reaches one billion yen. Even now, one year after the Expo, no payment of the unpaid fees has been made. Nevertheless, the government has compiled a report which proudly states that the Expo achieved a huge success with a surplus in profits of as much as 37 billion yen.

The unpaid subcontractors and their supporters, including the National Federation of Traders and Producers Organizations (Zenshoren), are urging the national government to use a portion of the Osaka Expo surplus to solve the issue of unpaid construction bills.

One of the unpaid subcontractors, Kishida Soshiro, said, “The Expo took place as a national project, therefore, it is the government’s responsibility to settle the non-payment issue.”

Another subcontractor said, “Affected by the non-payment of construction costs, my business fell on hard times, and I had to let my employees go.”

Past related articles:
> JCP Tatsumi demands that gov’t urge China to pay construction cost for its Osaka Expo pavilion [March 5, 2026]
> JCP Tatsumi urges gov’t to instruct French company to pay subcontractors construction fees for Osaka Expo pavilions [December 12, 2025]
> Subcontractors unpaid for Expo construction costs seek gov’t help [July 17, 2025]