From EXPO 2025 back to Eggenberg Palace

Yesterday, the interactive reproduction of the historic Osaka Screen, developed for EXPO 2025 in Osaka, was handed over at Eggenberg Palace. Thanks to an Augmented Reality application, this unique cultural asset can now be discovered in new ways. The handover exemplifies how World Expo projects can continue to have an impact beyond the actual event.

The approximately 400-year-old “Osaka zu byōbu” is one of the most significant testimonies to the historical connections between Austria and Japan. It depicts the economic, social, and cultural life of Osaka at the beginning of the 17th century and has been preserved at Eggenberg Palace for centuries. For EXPO 2025, the screen symbolically returned to its place of origin as an interactive reproduction.

Technical support for the project comes from AT&S. The Styrian technology company develops and produces IC substrates and printed circuit boards for key digital industries, including AI infrastructure and high-performance computing. The AR application, now permanently available in Graz, combines historical culture with Austrian technology and opens up new avenues to this extraordinary cultural heritage.

This project is also of particular interest to the ICS because, in 2025, we organized a Styrian business trip to EXPO 2025 in Osaka together with AUSSENWIRTSCHAFT AUSTRIA. The interactive Osaka Screen and other artistic reinterpretations were presented in the Austrian Pavilion at that time, making the diverse connections between Styria and Japan visible to an international audience.

In addition to cultural relations, economic contacts are also developing positively. After China, Japan remains one of Austria’s most important Asian sales markets. Preliminary foreign trade data for 2025 show a pleasing development: Austrian exports to Japan increased by approximately 26.5% to €2.0 billion, while Styria’s exports rose by 30.1% to €734 million in the same period.

The current development is accompanied by investments in future-oriented sectors such as semiconductors, automation, digitalization, and artificial intelligence. At the same time, demographic changes and a shortage of skilled workers in Japan are leading to increasing demand for technological solutions. This creates interesting opportunities for cooperation and market development for Austrian and Styrian companies.

As ICS, together with AUSSENWIRTSCHAFT AUSTRIA, we support Styrian companies in leveraging these potentials, establishing contacts, and further developing collaborations with Japanese partners.

Our tip: If we have piqued your curiosity about the Osaka Screen, the “Long Night of Museums” on October 3 offers a special opportunity: The historic state rooms of Eggenberg Palace can be visited in an atmospheric setting that evening. The palace is regularly open until the end of October and will welcome visitors again from March.