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Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan: Showcasing the future society made possible by NEC's advanced face recognition technology

Japanese

In April 2025, a major event bringing together knowledge from around the globe is slated to be held—Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan (the Expo). As the event draws near, we are starting to see MYAKU-MYAKU (Expo 2025 Official character) more and more around the streets of Japan. The Expo, whose theme is "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," will welcome approximately 160 participating countries and regions and serve as a testing ground for state-of-the-art technologies expected to pave the way for future society.

NEC will also play a role in the Expo, providing face recognition technology to ensure the smooth admission of visitors and enable hands-free payment at stores. This is the first time Osaka has hosted a world exposition in 55 years, and the origins of NEC's face recognition technology can actually be partially traced back to the that time. In this edition of NEC Stories, we will share the sentiments of two members who took on this major project utilizing NEC's face recognition technology.

Making a pleasant, hands-free experience possible for a record-breaking 1.2 million visitors

Atsushi Takahashi, head of the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan Promotion Office leading NEC's efforts related to the Expo, told us, "It truly felt like fate to be given the opportunity to provide NEC's face recognition technology, which has evolved so much over the past 55 years, for the Expo in Osaka."

Two different systems driven by face recognition technology will be used at the Expo site. The first is an admission control system. More than fifty admission gates will be equipped with NEC's face recognition to confirm the identity of ticket holders entering the Expo site. Those who purchase either a Season Pass for unlimited admission throughout the Expo or a Summer Pass for unlimited admission during the summer will be eligible to use these gates, where they will swipe the QR code printed on their ticket before undergoing additional confirmation of their identity using face recognition. With 1.2 million ticket holders anticipated to register, this will be NEC's largest rollout of a face recognition service in Japan. The second is a face recognition payment system. With this system, biometric payments will eliminate the need to use cash, a card, or even a smartphone, thus contributing to the first attempt at implementing an all-cashless experience at a world exposition.

Tracing back the origins of NEC's face recognition technology to the Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970: The relentless pursuit of refinement

The key to all of this is NEC's face recognition technology. As NEC began developing these two systems, Takahashi of the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan Promotion Office discovered a similarity with NEC's exhibit at the world exposition held 55 years ago.

The Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970 (EXPO '70), whose theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind," remains a story passed down as a symbol of Japan's postwar recovery. At EXPO '70, NEC exhibited a personality test using a computer modeled after a fortune-teller's magnifying glass at the Sumitomo Fairytale Pavilion. This was a revolutionary technology at the time because it could use photographs taken of visitors to analyze and classify the positions and contours of their eyes, nose, and mouth by matching them to historical figures with similar patterns.

It just so happens that the analysis method used in 1970 was the inspiration for today's face recognition technology. Takahashi, who learned this by chance, told us, "I was surprised and impressed," adding, "It gave me a renewed sense that NEC is where it is today because it values technologies and relentlessly pursues their refinement."

Now fast forward 55 years. Today, NEC's advanced face recognition technology boasts world-class accuracy and has been used in more than 50 countries and regions worldwide for entry and exit control, payments, marketing, and more.

Creating experiences children will remember many years down the road

According to Takahiro Oda of the Biometrics and Vision AI Department, who has supported these efforts from a technical standpoint, "The range of applications for this technology is expanding, but this marks the first time it will be introduced on a scale as massive as 1.2 million people." To ensure peace of mind for visitors using the system, NEC has focused on designing a system that takes security, privacy, and human rights very seriously. While it is by no means easy to refine a system like this to a level where this many people can use it safely and conveniently, NEC remains committed to fine-tuning it.

Oda says this has proven to be an enormous challenge even for NEC, which has provided face recognition and other biometric systems and promoted the use of AI over many years.

There is also the pressure of knowing this will be the largest number of registered face recognition users NEC has ever dealt with. Nevertheless, the members involved in this project have a dream that giving people of all ages and genders from around the world an opportunity to use NEC's technology at the Expo will serve as a catalyst for the exponential expansion of face recognition utilization. Oda explains, "There will be many children at the Expo site. I hope this will be a core experience for them, and every time they use face recognition ten or even twenty years down the road they will think to themselves, 'Oh! I remember using face recognition to enter that world exposition I went to as a child.'"

NEC has declared its Purpose as "creating the social values of safety, security,
fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential." As stated emphatically by Oda, "Face recognition is a technology that makes it possible to provide the right service to the right person by accurately identifying them." This is why NEC believes the widespread use of its face recognition technology will undoubtedly contribute to fulfilling the company's Purpose.

The world exposition will be held in Osaka for the first time in more than half a century. We invite you to take a step forward and experience firsthand the future society where NEC's face recognition technology will enable the realization of its Purpose.

Related Links

  • *
    Face registration for Season Pass and Summer Pass ticket holders will begin on January 10.
    Please register via the ticket site above.
  • *
    There are many spots where you can experience NEC's face recognition systems.
    Please try in-store payments using face recognition at Seattle's Best Coffee locations in Osaka and shops affiliated with the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau.

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