Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Green × Expo 2027 (the International Horticultural Expo 2027, Yokohama, Japan) will be held from March 19 to Sept. 26, 2027 — 37 years after Japan last hosted a top-tier horticultural exposition, the International Garden and Greenery Exposition, in Osaka in 1990.

With the overarching theme of “Scenery of the Future for Happiness,” the expo will go beyond the conventional horticultural expo format to communicate and take action on solving global issues. The objective is to demonstrate the potential for a sustainable and happy society where flowers and greenery help us achieve harmony with nature. Held just three years out from 2030, the target year for most of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, the event will contribute to the achievement of the SDGs by presenting a Japanese model for society beyond 2030 and communicating sustainable initiatives for the realization of a green society.

Since its opening as an international port in 1859, Yokohama has been a gateway for trade in horticultural products, including the export of lilies and other plants from Japan and the import of Western flowers like roses and tulips. The expo will be held at the former Kamiseya Communication Facility located in the suburbs of Yokohama. This land once housed warehouse facilities for the former Imperial Japanese Navy, and after World War II it was requisitioned by the U.S. military and turned into a naval communications base. It was returned to the Japanese government in 2015.

Before the war, Kanagawa Prefecture, just south of Tokyo, was home to several military bases, along with military educational institutions and factories. After the war, the U.S. and other Allied forces seized those facilities and used them for stationing troops. Kanagawa was second only to Okinawa in terms of the number and scale of bases it hosted. Eighty years have passed since the end of the war, and the return of U.S. bases has progressed considerably, but as of 2022 Kanagawa still housed 12 U.S. military bases, comprising an area of approximately 17 square kilometers, according to its government.

The former Kamiseya Communications Facility, which was returned in 2015, is vast, covering 242 hectares — 100 hectares of which will host the expo. Because the area was off-limits for such a long time, it is now considered a rich natural environment, including farmland and gently rolling grasslands, valuable natural assets like the headwaters of the Aizawa and Izumi rivers flowing to the north and south, and a picturesque valley. During the event, the expo site will be decorated with a wide variety of flowers and greenery. Industry professionals will exhibit gardens, flower beds, ikebana and Western-style flower arrangements, and new varieties of plants plus rare species. In the main garden, visitors will be able to enjoy the seasonal changes in blooming flowers, and in the gardens of overseas exhibitors, they will experience a variety of floriculture, horticulture and landscaping techniques from around the world, as well as distinctive exhibits from different regions.

The official status of the exposition ensures it will be well attended. Green × Expo 2027 is of the the highest level of international horticultural exposition, the A1 class, and will be held with the endorsement of both the International Association of Horticulturalists (AIPH, headquartered in the United Kingdom) and the Bureau International d’Exposition (BIE, headquartered in France). International horticultural expositions are held with the aim of promoting horticulture and landscaping, the value of flowers and greenery to our lives, and also regional and economic development and opportunities to resolve social issues. Four categories of exposition are recognized: world horticultural expositions (A1 class), international horticultural expositions (B), international horticultural shows (C) and international horticultural trade expositions (D). World horticultural expositions must be accredited by the BIE, which was established under the Convention on International Exhibitions, and can be called “international expositions.”

The International Association of Horticulturalists (AIPH) was founded in 1948, after World War II, by horticultural producers from various European countries with the aim of promoting their interests and advancing horticultural techniques on an international level. Its headquarters is in Oxfordshire, England, and as of 2022, it is composed of 77 horticultural and landscape gardening organizations and others from around the world. The first A1-class international horticultural exposition was held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1960. Since then, expos have been held regularly, mainly in Europe. The 1990 International Garden and Greenery in Osaka was the first to be held in Asia. In recent years, other expos have been held in China, Thailand, Turkey and, most recently, in Doha, Qatar, in 2023, making them a truly global phenomenon.

Speaking of expos, Expo 2025 is due to kick off in Osaka in April. A forest has been created in the center of the giant wooden Grand Ring that demarcates the venue. Named the “Forest of Tranquility,” it symbolizes the kind of symbiosis with nature that society should strive for in the future. Pavilions are lined up around the forest, which covers an area of about 2.3 hectares and boasts some 1,500 trees. We human beings are sustained by nature and form part of the natural cycle of life. It is exhilarating to imagine what kind of “scenery of the future” will emerge at Green × Expo 2027, where planetary-scale issues like global warming, loss of biodiversity, natural disasters and food crises will all be firmly on the agenda.

2027年3月19日〜9月26日に「GREEN×EXPO 2027（2027年国際園芸博覧会）」が神奈川県横浜市で開催される。1990年に大阪で開催された「国際花と緑の博覧会（花の万博）」以来、日本では37年ぶり2回目となる最上位クラスの国際的な園芸博覧会だ。このEXPOは「幸せを創る明日の風景」をテーマに掲げ、従来の園芸博に留まらず地球規模の課題解決に向けた行動と発信を行う国際博覧会。花や緑との関わりを通じ、自然と共生した持続可能で幸福感が深まる社会を提案することが目的だ。

SDGsの目標年：2030年直前に開催されるEXPOとしてSDGs達成に貢献し、その先の社会も見据えた日本モデルの提示や、グリーン社会の実現に向けた取組の発信も予定している。会場となるのは横浜市郊外に位置する「旧・上瀬谷通信施設」。この場所は戦後、在日米軍に接収され、2015年に日本政府へ返還された土地だ。約242ヘクタールと広大で、そのうち約100ヘクタールが博覧会区域となる。長期にわたり土地利用が制限されてきたことから、農地など豊かな自然環境が広がっている。

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