After six months of humanoid robots, a frozen mammoth and long queues for some of the 22 million visitors, Japan on Sunday wrapped up a popular and trouble-free World Expo by putting people center-stage.
With a final fanfare, the curtain fell on a showcase event that has largely defied early predictions of a flop and instead sets a hard act for Asian rival China to follow as the next host.
Together with the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 Expo is seen as a test for China, which is hoping to boost its global stature and outdo Japan.
"Asia has become a driving force of the world economy," said Wu Jianmin, the Chinese head of the international body that oversees the Expo. The event was born from the 1851 Great Exhibition in London and is now held every five years.
"Expo contributes to Asian dynamism for the benefit not only of Asia but also the rest of the world," he told a crowd including Crown Prince Naruhito, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and a host of foreign participants.
The six-month exhibition in a forest park in central Aichi prefecture drew a larger-than-expected 22 million visitors with 121 countries hosting displays aiming to depict the link between technology and the environment.
Organisers heaved a sigh of relief as the event ended with no major crimes or terrorist attacks and under sunny skies, despite heavy rain in parts of Japan over the weekend with a typhoon bearing down on the mainland of Honshu.
In contrast to the opening ceremony when humanoid robots walked, danced and played music, the closing session was all about humans. Japanese traditional kabuki actors performed and children waved the flags of the 121 participating nations.
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