Suita City, Osaka
This 350,000 person populated suburb of Osaka city hosted Japans first ever Worlds Fair Expo in 1970 with the theme "Progress and Harmony for Mankind". With over 64 million visitors, it is considered to be one of the largest and best attended World Expositions in history.
The Osaka region is well known for its relaxed citizens, great cuisine and being an economic powerhouse. Although many businesses moved their headquarters to Tokyo, the GDP of the Osaka prefecture has been bigger in recent years than the individual GDPs of all but eight countries in the world! Osaka city is a great blend of an ultra modern mega-city with stand out historical sites.
One of the notable sites is Osaka castle. In the late 16th century, Osaka became quite important when Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a critical figure in unifying Japan decided to build his castle there. It took 100,000 workers three years to construct the original castle that was destroyed just 32 years later. Today a concrete reconstruction stands which was refurbished at great cost in 1997.
Find out more about the Suita City Local Organizing Committee in Japanese at http://sing.osakazine.net/
