KDDI's History of Expo Participation

■Display at the International Exposition, Tsukuba, Japan, 1985

Over a period of six months from March 17 to September 16, 1985, KDD (at the time) exhibited a standalone KDD pavilion at the International Exposition, Tsukuba, Japan, 1985.

KDD's (at the time) standalone KDD TELECOMLAND pavilion attracted a long line of visitors every day.

During the exhibition period, KDD TELECOMLAND hosted numerous events over consecutive days such as teleconferences with the United States, conference system exchanges with the Showa Station in Antarctica, and a friendly Japan-U.S. game using a computer-controlled Go board played by female Go player to showcase the roles and responsibilities as well as a future vision for international communications.
Popularity was high among visitors, and there were waiting lines up to 50 minutes long every day. A total of 2.27 million people visited the pavilion during the exhibition period. As for the pavilion priority entry privileges granted to the ten millionth and twenty millionth visitors to the Expo, KDD TELECOMLAND beat out the popular pavilions of other companies to be designated at both times due to its immense popularity.

KDD (at the time) attendants promoting KDD TELECOMLAND
at the Expo venue

Ferris wheel modeled on a communications satellite

Welcoming the Crown Prince and his wife to KDD TELECOMLAND

Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia and his delegation visiting
KDD TELECOMLAND

■Focusing on "future leader development" from the beginning

"It is our hope that young people will learn more about international communications and lead the next generation of Japan."
It was this desire that led to KDD's (at the time) traveling classroom.
The traveling classroom screened cultural films produced by KDD (at the time) and gave lectures using special booklets developed for the classroom to explain the role played by international communications in daily life.
The traveling classroom was well-received with 733 schools and 423,717 people participating by the end of 1977. It was so popular that educational boards even requested that KDD increase the number of participating schools.

The traveling classroom visited middle school students across the country.

Source: KDDI corporate history