By Sean Coombs
Expo Reporter
OSAKA, Japan — Expo officials bowed in apology at a chaotic press conference that followed the disruption caused to an estimated 30,000 Expo visitors stranded on site Wednesday when the only subway station servicing the sprawling Expo site shut down.
Local news was dominated by reports of the confusion at Expo and complaints from stranded visitors. Many slept on the ground overnight on Wednesday after the Osaka Metro Chuo Line, the only train connection to the Expo island, ground to a halt due to an electrical outage.
At first, visitors were stuck in huge lineups at the end of the day near the Expo site’s east gate entrance that leads to the subway. Eventually, visitors were directed back inside the Expo perimeter, where many took shelter on patches of grass and on benches underneath the grand Expo ring to hunker down for the night.
Many of the 30,000 visitors were forced to spend the night at Expo until full metro service resumed at 5 a.m. local time on Thursday, according to the Kyodo news wire, Expo’s official news provider.
“We were so hungry,” said one child interviewed on a national broadcast of Asahi News. “All of us wanted to get out of there as soon as we could,” said the father.
Viewers who called in to a special newscast by the public broadcaster NHK voiced similar complaints, saying that announcements from the Expo organizers were sparse and they largely had to fend for themselves.
“All the vending machines ran out of drinks quickly and there was no free food,” said one viewer during the broadcast. “They finally gave us water at 4 a.m., but they were tiny.”
In two chaotic press conferences after the disruption had subsided, Expo and Metro officials apologized for the discomfort caused.
One of the press conferences included officials from the Osaka Expo Crisis Management Committee, which has dealt with previous disruptions, including a tsunami alert earlier in July.
“From the bottom of our hearts, we sincerely apologise,” said committee official Atsushi Takashima. “We deeply regret the experience that visitors had.”
Despite the grilling from journalists about complaints Expo mishandled the disruption, committee officials said that visitors seeking makeshift shelter was always a part of their emergency plan.
Referencing plans made for tsunamis or earthquakes, officials said that the Expo grounds were the safest place for visitors to be during a crisis and cited the comparatively low number of visitors needing medical attention as proof that the Expo had kept most visitors safe.
Committee officials directed further questions to the Osaka Metro Corporation, which they said held the ultimate responsibility for the disruption.
In their news conference, Metro officials said that a power line disconnection was responsible for the disruption and that a full investigation was now underway to prevent similar issues in the future.
Officials from both organizations said that compensation would not be given to visitors that were impacted.
While limited Metro service partially resumed before midnight, the trains could only take visitors to another island in Setonaikai bay, causing existing bus and taxi services that were the only other way to leave the Expo to quickly become overwhelmed.
The disruption continued into Thursday as the opening of the Expo was delayed by one hour to 10 am due to extended clean-up efforts. That resulted in long lines of new visitors outside the Expo gates, eventually forcing organizers to let some guests in early to prevent overcrowding.
The opening of the Canada Pavilion was delayed until 11 a.m. on Thursday, although scheduled activities there weren’t disrupted.
Canada Pavilion staff were able to get home safely during the disruption and the pavilion did not receive any requests from Expo organizers to make pavilion space available for shelter for visitors.
Only a few pavilions opened their doors to visitors during the disruption, including pavilions operated by the City of Osaka, which provided shelter after the mayor of Osaka Hideyuki Yokoyama ordered them to open via posts on social media.
Media reported that 36 people were taken away by ambulance during the disruption with suspected heat stroke, although none of them were reported to be in serious condition.
News of the disruption dominated Japanese newscasts in the afternoon following the disruption, with news coverage voicing complaints from impacted visitors about their experience.