Expo 2025
Capital Current has three reporters on the ground in Japan between now and mid-October to report on the Expo 2025 world exhibition, being held in Osaka. Each of the three reporters will spend eight weeks or more as Carleton journalism interns reporting on Expo, with a focus on Canada’s presence at the major international exposition. Their reporting will be featured here.
More than 28 million visitors are expected at the Expo, which showcases more than 150 countries and international organizations. Canada famously hosted Expo 67 in Montreal, an event that thrust Canada onto the world stage during its Centennial year. The Expo world exhibitions, which normally take place every five years, are probably second only to the Olympics as an international gathering that puts aside politics and conflict to celebrate our planet and the way forward.
The Expo 2025 theme is “Designing Future Society for Our Lives” and a focus is global collaboration and progress in the context of fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Canada’s participation at Expo 2025 Osaka is seen as an opportunity to celebrate the close ties between Canada and Japan, as well as deliver on Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. A hallmark of Canada’s participation at Expos has always been its vibrant cultural programming. Canada’s National Arts Centre is curating a six-month line-up presenting a broad spectrum of Canadian performing arts for the Canada Pavilion stage and for stages across the Expo site.
Capital Current will be there to capture it all and share those stories.
Our Expo reporters
Poppy Philbrook just completed the first year of Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism program and has focused on arts and culture, after serving as the senior editor for their high school’s arts magazine. Philbrook’s internship begins in late May. “I look forward not only to getting to head back to my home away from home but getting to explore journalism in a place that has shaped who I am,” said Philbrook, who lived in Japan for five years after the family moved to Tokyo in 2016. Philbrook learned Japanese over those five years and continued to practise the language after moving back home to Vancouver in 2021. “I hope to gain more experience in journalistic forms beyond writing, such as audio and video,” Philbrook said. “I’m also looking forward to gaining experience working in an international setting and getting to cover a myriad of stories with diverse perspectives and experiences.”
Sean Coombs, who graduates from Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism program in June, describes himself as a mixed-race Canadian with deep ties to Japan through his Japanese mother. He visits Japan every year to see his grandfather and extended family and will arrive in late June to take up the internship. “From my mother teaching me Japanese to doing cultural exchanges in public school, Japanese culture was embedded in my childhood,” Coombs said. “I hope to translate my passion into my reporting for this Expo. Canada and Japan have more in common than one might think, and the unique history that binds these two countries together will be the basis for my reporting.” Coombs served as an opinion reporter and a board of directors member for Carleton’s campus newspaper, The Charlatan and has also contributed to other publications, including CBC Ottawa, CPAC, and MAX Ottawa.
Alyssa Johnston graduates in June from the Media Production and Design program at Carleton and also comes from a mixed background of Japanese-Canadian heritage. She was born and raised in Japan and came to Canada in 2021 for university. “My dream was to work to connect people from Canada and Japan, exchanging the beautiful culture of both countries. I am very excited to be back home in Japan and report on the exciting stories of the Canadian Pavilion and the Osaka Expo.” Johnston is passionate about storytelling and finding stories that resonate and could inspire people. She has created multimedia websites in collaboration with such partners as the NAC and the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre to tell a visually appealing and engaging story. She will take up her internship in late August and stay through the end of Expo, in mid-October.