Fumiya Takenawa, a collector of expo-related memorabilia, bought the ticket to the 1940 Grand International Exposition of Japan online in March.
Often referred to as the “phantom expo”, the 1940 event was set to take place in Tokyo but was indefinitely postponed as the war intensified.
One million ticket booklets, each containing 12 tickets, went on sale in 1938 for 10 yen, or around 17,000 yen (US$118) in today’s currency, according to The Mainichi. Amid the chaos of the war, ticket holders were unable to claim refunds.
Takenawa, 25, initially kept the ticket in a display case at home, but later began to wonder if it could still be used for the upcoming expo. When he contacted the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, he was told that if the ticket was authentic and met the conditions, it would be honoured.
This was in line with past policies of issuing “invitation tickets” to holders of the 1940 passes, the Osaka 2025 Expo organisers told The Japan Times on Monday. An estimated 3,000 were redeemed at the 1970 Osaka Expo and about 100 at the 2005 Aichi Expo.
