©Expo 2025
HORIBA is
Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai,
Japan Signature Pavilion
"Future of Life"
Bronze Partner
©Future of Life / EXPO2025
©Future of Life / EXPO2025
Provided by Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition©Expo 2025
HORIBA is
Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai,
Japan Signature Pavilion
"Future of Life"
Bronze Partner
©Future of Life / EXPO2025©Future of Life / EXPO2025Provided by Japan Association for the 2025 World ExpositionHORIBA's vision, "Joy and Fun for All" ※deeply resonates with the philosophy of the Signature Pavilion, "Future of Life” produced by ISHIGURO Hiroshi, the producer of this thematic project who conducts Robot/Android research at Osaka University.
We aim for visitors to experience how our “Analytical and Measurement” technologies contribute to creating a prosperous future where all living beings of “LIFE” on Earth can thrive.
As an official sponsor, we have engaged in extensive discussions—not only within our company but also with fellow sponsors—about how our technologies can provide solutions for the future 50 years later from now, as envisioned by Expo 2025. We believe that collaboration beyond national and corporate boundaries presents an incredible opportunity to generate new value and bring us to the ideal future society we aim to achieve.
At this Expo2025, we invite you to witness the synergy between the unique ideas of ISHIGURO Hiroshi, and the innovative “Analytical and Measurement” solutions proposed by HORIBA, hoping to inspire you with the role we envision in shaping the future 50 years later from now.
※ For more about HORIBA‘s vision, “Joy and Fun for All“, please check here.
Dan Horiba
Project Owner, HAKARU MIRAI EXPO 2025
Director, HORIBA, Ltd.
HORIBA is a company specializing in “Analytical and Measurement” technologies of various substances on Earth, including water and air. Through our “Analytical and Measurement” technologies, we aim to contribute to a world where all living beings not only live but also thrive. Human beings have sought a better quality of life by using earth’s resources to create and consume goods, thereby gaining comfort.
However, this has also disrupted the Earth's environmental balance, causing problems that place a burden on both other living beings and the planet itself.
To create an environment that is safe for all living beings, it is essential to first "understand" the current state of the Earth’s surroundings. To gain this understanding, we need " Analytical and Measurement" technologies to observe various environmental conditions and changes. The knowledge we achieve from measuring may provide valuable insights for creating a more sustainable and prosperous future.
Beyond “Analytical and Measurement” technologies, towards endless possibilities.
We contribute to a sustainable global environment and the health of diverse living beings through our technologies and solutions.
In the Signature Pavilion "Future of Life", produced by the theme project producer of Expo 2025, ISHIGURO Hiroshi, we took on the challenge of creating light installations both interior and exterior of the pavilion.
By combining HORIBA's advanced “Analytical and Measurement” technologies with the expertise of lighting specialists, we transform the invisible environmental changes happening around us into magical light installations, expressing them as the "Shores: Edge of Evolution."
The “Analytical and Measurement" technologies are essential for understanding environmental changes. HORIBA‘s advanced technologies capture slight environmental shifts that are beyond human perception. We have installed air quality monitor inside the ceiling of the pavilion and water quality analyzers scattering exterior in water basin. These sensors generate two different light waves from their analytical and measurement data. Additionally, by continuously measuring and analyzing in real-time for 24 hours, slight environmental changes are transformed into variations in light intensity.
These light installations are inspired by the pavilion's concept, the "Shores: Edge of Water." Just like how natural shores are formed by the meeting of waves, in this light installation, the two different light waves meet, blend together, and create new patterns. This represents how all living beings have evolved in harmony with their environment, influencing and shaping each other.
We invite you to visit the Signature Pavilion "Future of Life " and experience the "Shores: Edge of Evolution," where you can feel the diverse expansion of “LIFE” and the connection between all living beings!
～Key Features of the "Shores: Edge of Evolution" Light Installation:～
・Light Waves Created by Capturing Environmental Changes
Intensity of Light: The intensity of the light is synchronized with the analytical and measurement data from the air quality monitor and water quality analyzers installed in the pavilion. This intensity of the light transforms invisible environmental changes into a visually expressive "wave of light." The light waves are represented by two white waves that meet and merge, dynamically altering the appearance of the light.
Color Tone of Light: When the "light waves" meet and interact, their colors change. This color transformation symbolizes the "diversity of the environment" and " how diverse living beings of life emerge and expand from the environment."
・Special Light Installations
The occasional shifts in color symbolically represent evolutionary processes that are often difficult to notice. These slight changes, happening over long periods, teach us that they were, in fact, part of a significant evolutionary journey.
Discovering the Science Behind the Changes in the Light
At the Signature Pavilion "Future of Life", we have minimized exhibition explanation panels to create an immersive space that expresses the theme of "LIFE" expanding. Through AR technology, visitors can discover how HORIBA's “Analytical and Measurement” technologies bring the pavilion's exterior to life through dynamic light installations.
When you launch the Virtual Expo app and scan the AR markers installed around the pavilion's water basin, your discovering journey begins. In the virtual world, try adding shells, flowers, and rock salt to the water. You can experience right before your eyes how the qualities of water transform into beautiful light art - just as HORIBA's sensors do in real time at the pavilion.
"Analytical and Measurement" Technologies × Water
In the pavilion, "water" is viewed as the symbol of life and technology. Water is essential for all living beings. To nurture life safely and securely into the future, understanding water's properties and conditions is crucial. "Analytical and Measurement" technologies help us understand the current state surrounding the Earth’s resources. HORIBA's water quality analysis technologies contribute to water safety and environmental conservation by analyzing and visualizing diverse water environments, from natural settings like oceans, rivers, and lakes to water supply and sewage systems and industrial wastewater.
"Analytical and Measurement" Technologies × Light
HORIBA's water quality analyzers continuously analyze and measure the water quality in the pavilion's surrounding basin, 24 hours a day. These sensors detect even the smallest changes in water quality that we cannot see with our eyes. The measurement data is then transformed into different levels of light that illuminate the pavilion. In the AR experience, you can see how this process works through a virtual demonstration of water quality changes affecting light patterns.
This experience helps you understand how our “Analytical and Measurement” technologies work: first by detecting environmental changes, then by transforming this scientific data into the beautiful light installation you see on the pavilion.
Ready to start? Launch the app and find the AR markers around the pavilion's water features. Watch how our "Analytical and Measurement" technologies create amazing light installations that make our pavilion special.
Water is known as the source of life. To protect the safety of water resources - essential for all living beings - and maintain an environment that nurtures abundant life, various standards for water quality elements have been set. For example, "pH value" indicates the level of acidity or alkalinity in water, which can affect living organisms in extreme cases. "Dissolved oxygen" refers to the amount of oxygen in water, which determines how easily fish and aquatic life can breathe in their environment. "Electrical conductivity" shows the amount of salts and minerals in water, "Turbidity" indicates water clarity, and "Chemical oxygen demand" measures the amount of organic matter in water.
HORIBA develops and manufactures water quality analyzers that measure these water quality standards accurately and quickly. Our water environment is becoming increasingly diverse due to urbanization, infrastructure development, and growing water demands from energy development. This creates a need for analytical and measurement technologies that can work in unprecedented harsh conditions. While ensuring our instruments are durable enough to withstand these challenging environments, we are also working to make our water quality analyzers more compact and easier to carry. In the pavilion, we showcase one of our miniaturization technologies: a newly developed thin metal sensor just 1mm in diameter, enabling measurements in conditions where traditional glass sensors cannot be installed or used effectively.
By collecting and analyzing water quality data 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from various locations, we can thoroughly monitor and manage water quality conditions in different regions and ecosystems. As we work toward creating a healthy and sustainable society, HORIBA continues to refine our technologies to make them more accurate, compact, and user-friendly. Through the constant evolution of water quality analysis technologies, we contribute to protecting the security and safety of water - essential for all living beings.
The atmosphere that envelops our Earth is mainly composed of nitrogen (N2) about 78% and oxygen (O2) about 21%. The remaining 1% contains various substances that affect living environments, climate, weather, and even human health. HORIBA's gas measurement technologies play a vital role in understanding where these substances originate and how they exist in the atmosphere by precisely detecting subtle environmental changes.
Regular measurement and data analysis of human-generated emissions from factories and vehicles, as well as particles from natural sources like volcanic activity and yellow sand, helps us minimize negative impacts on the global environment that surrounds humans and other living beings.
In the pavilion, HORIBA's high-precision air quality monitor simultaneously measures real-time concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and methane (CH₄) in the indoor air. This equipment features two innovative technologies: our proprietary next-generation infrared spectroscopy technology IRLAM™*¹, which combines laser and data science to achieve high-speed, high-precision gas concentration measurements, and "Open-path measurement"*² system that simplifies the measurement process and can rapidly measure gases present in the space between two mirrors.
By utilizing, applying, and evolving these technologies, HORIBA is actively working to meet new gas measurement technologies that are needed in next-generation mobility, power generation, and various industrial sectors. Through these efforts, we contribute to CO₂ emission reduction and carbon capture, striving to create an environmentally friendly society.
*¹ IRLAM™ (Infrared Laser Absorption Modulation) is a registered trademark or trademark of HORIBA, Ltd. in Japan and other countries.
*² Open-path measurement system: A measurement method that analyzes gases directly through a dedicated optical path in open air, without collecting gas components into an analyzer.
As part of our sponsorship of the Signature Pavilion "Future of Life", the volunteers from HORIBA launched the " HAKARU MIRAI EXPO 2025 PROJECT" in August 2022. This project brought together 27 members from various departments and backgrounds, all selected through an internal application process, who have driven HORIBA's Expo 2025 sponsorship activities to bring the idea for the pavilion's light installation and our vision for the future. "The project name combines “HAKARU” (meaning " Analytical and Measurement” technologies) and “MIRAI” (meaning “Future”, which is HORIBA's area of expertise). It was chosen to be memorable for everyone."
In the early stages, we focused on expanding ideas about what society might look like 50 years from now and what kind of future would inspire excitement and curiosity.
These discussions extended beyond the project members. Through initiatives like the "Our Future Project," which envisions HORIBA’s 100th anniversary 30 years from now, workshops with senior employees who experienced the 1970 Osaka Expo, and exchanges with other pavilion sponsor companies, we refined HORIBA’s vision for the future—"HAKARU NO MIRAI".
Building on these conceptual discussions, we began developing and creating exhibits and experiences for the Signature Pavilion "Future of Life" in the latter half of 2023.
~The Story Behind the Project Logo~
The project logo is inspired by the 'cells' that reside within HORIBARIANs*, which create the future. At the center, the nucleolus represents the concept of “Analytical and Measurement” technology in blue and “future” in red. By bringing together the DNA, wisdom, and technology of HORIBARIANs, we aim to create an exciting "Future of Measurement" that will inspire and captivate our visitors!
* HORIBARIANs are all those who work at HORIBA. We take ownership and challenge ourselves, all while enjoying the task at hand.
Reading the sky, reading yourself-
Bringing them together might reveal something.
Have you ever felt a sudden emotion when you looked up at the blue sky?
Let’s measure the blueness of the sky with a blueness ruler called “Cyanometer”.
The “HORIBA Sorayomi Note™" is an experience that records your wonderful encounters with the sky.
Even the same blue sky can evoke different feelings for different people.
By comparing everyone's sky readings, you might discover new insights into the relationship between the blueness of the sky and emotions.
Let‘s try the “HORIBA Sorayomi Note™" to discover the fun of new measurements!
