BIE emblem and flag
One flag for every Expo
For more than a century, each Expo designed its own emblem and flag, and no symbol tied one Expo to the next. That changed in 1968, when the organizers of Expo 1970 Osaka proposed a shared emblem and flag, much like the Olympic flag.
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A proposal from Osaka
On June 11, 1968, at a meeting of department directors preparing Expo 1970 Osaka, Vice President Yoshimaru Kanno suggested a common emblem and flag for Expos. Like the Olympic flag, it would stand for international cooperation and pass from one host country to the next.
Joseph Hamels, vice president of the BIE, supported the idea. The BIE's Bulletin and Publicity Committee adopted it on October 29, 1968, and the BIE's 64th directors' meeting approved it on November 29, 1968.
02
An international competition
To have the emblem and flag ready for Osaka, the BIE asked its 34 Member States to hold national design competitions and to send three proposals each to its Bulletin and Publicity Committee in Paris, which would make the final choice. In Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Japan Association for the 1970 World Exposition organized a public competition that received 44,628 designs from 13,389 entrants.
Masaru Katsumi, design adviser to the Japan Association for the 1970 World Exposition, chaired the Japanese selection committee. He had argued against an open competition, and he recommended the designers Zenichi Mano, Ryuichi Yamashiro and Ikko Tanaka as members. He also asked contacts in London and Paris to send ICOGRADA experts to help the committee in Paris choose, but that request did not succeed.
The jury chose one winner and five honorable mentions, and Japan sent its top three designs to Paris: a wave-like form by Hiroyoshi Ueda and Osamu Furumura, which won first prize in Japan; linked figures by Tooru Sawamura; and a design by Masanori Matsushima, then a senior at the Tokyo University of Education. In Paris, the BIE chose Matsushima's design, the one that had placed third at home, as the official World Exposition Emblem.
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What the emblem means
The circle stands for peace, fraternity and cultural exchange. The horizontal lines are steps toward a future of boundless progress, and six of them form an arrow pointing upward. The purple-blue color evokes nobility in Japan, the oceans and the sky, and the white lines stand for peace and justice.
The flag's proportions were fixed precisely: its height and width are in a ratio of 2:3, the emblem's diameter is two-thirds of the flag's height, and the purple-blue emblem sits at the center of a white field.
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First flown at Expo 1970 Osaka
Yomiuri Newspapers made the original flag and presented it to the Japan Association for the 1970 World Exposition. It was handed to the association's president at the opening ceremony of Expo 1970 Osaka and flew throughout the Expo. Afterward, it went back to the BIE for future Expos.
The BIE also set rules for its use. Member States and participating nonmember states could fly the flag at their pavilions, and any use of the emblem, including commercial use, needed the BIE's authorization.
The BIE still uses the emblem today. Its lines were later opened up slightly so it stays legible at small sizes.
Sources: Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970: Official Report, vol. 1 (Suita: Commemorative Association for the Japan World Exposition, 1972), 67-69; Richard Baird, “Bureau International des Expositions, 1972,” Logo Histories, May 6, 2023.
