The Osaka Expo 1970 opened from March 15 to September 13, 1970. The theme was 人類の進歩と調和 - Progress and Harmony for Mankind. The Expo site at Senri was connected to Osaka by a 4-car monorail built by Hitachi-Alweg. The expo´s utopian promise and Japan´s growing electronics industry was visible also in the services offered: The Lost and Found Centers used ´TV-telephones´, and parking lots have been equipped with sensors to guide motorists to empty parking lots.
In the German pavilion designed by Fritz Bornemann, Karlheinz Stockhausen played the "Gardens of Music" in a spherical auditorium illuminated by light artist Otto Pien, and designer Rudi Gernreich presented his "unisex fashion".
The master plan was designed by Kenzo Tange with Fumihiko Maki, Noboru Kawazoe, Koji Kamiya, Noriaki Kurokawa, Arata Isozaki, Kiyonori Kikutake and others. The 70 metre Sun Tower was designed by Taro Okamoto. Isamo Noguchi designed the fountains. The USSR Pavilion was designed by Mikhail V. Posokhin, the U.S. Pavilion was designed by Davis Brody with Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, the Netherlands Pavilion was designed by Carel Weeber and Jaap Bakema and the Canadian Pavilion was designed by Arthur Erickson.
The Expo Osaka ´70 had the highest visitor numbers of any world expo in history with 64 million visitors. Its architectural design presented utopian architectural viewpoints and foreshadowed future tendencies in architecture including tensile constructions, metabolistic structures, neo-historic and symbolic styles. Matshushita Electric donated a time capsule that is to be opened in the year 6970.