Shanghai Daily news

The cherry blossom season is underway in Japan and promotions for World Expo 2010 Shanghai are blooming as well. Expo officials last week expanded their promotions in Tokyo, a major overseas stop to fan Expo fever.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said last year's Expo promotion was good, and this one would be better.

Three Japanese celebrities have been named Expo goodwill ambassadors. A Shanghai Expo treasure hunt is underway.

Four major train lines carry Expo and Shanghai photos and video.

Around 70 million visitors are expected at the Shanghai Expo, including 3.5 million foreign tourists.

Japan is likely to be one of the biggest sources of tourists.

Takashi Sasaki, head of the Japan Tourist Bureau (JTB), told an Expo seminar in Tokyo last week that the Expo could attract as many as 100 million visitors, including at least one million Japanese.

Expo organizers are doing everything possible to make that happen.

In Tokyo itself, an Expo treasure hunt is on: The prizes from a lucky draw are free round-trip Tokyo-Shanghai airfares, five-star hotel accommodations and Expo tickets.

To be eligible for the draw, players must collect three Expo stamps by visiting Expo stops marked on a map of Tokyo. Maps are available at Metro stations, airports and Chinese souvenir stores.

One of the stops is a subtly decorated Chinese tea culture store in a quiet street in Shinagawa in Tokyo.

It stamps the treasure hunt maps. A Japanese couple, recently back from Tianjin, China, went to the store especially for the Expo stamps.

"I lived in China for three years and I like Shanghai very much," said Sasaki. "We hope to win the free flight tickets or Expo tickets."

Besides ordinary folks, Japanese public figures and celebrities are promoting the Expo.

During Expo Week last week, organizers named their first three overseas goodwill ambassadors to promote Shanghai Expo: singer Shinji Tanimura, fashion designer Junko Koshino and table tennis player Ai Fukuhara.

Tanimura, well known in China in the 1980s, has a special feeling for World Expos.

"I became a professional singer after I sang at the Osaka Expo in 1970," he said. "Thus, I hope this Expo will provide more opportunities for singers and for young musicians to write the theme song for the event."

Fukuhara, the 19-year-old "little princess" of the table tennis world, plans to promote the Expo both on and off the court.

Expo is right on track: Railway promotions began last spring.

Some trains in the Tokyo metropolitan area bear the Expo logo, and photo exhibitions are underway on trains and Metro lines.

This year, organizers are multi-tracking their efforts. Now four major lines spread the word. An Expo Express, bearing the Expo logo and mascot Haibao, started the run on Tokyo's Toei Oedo Line last Wednesday. An Expo photo exhibition on the line also opened.

The photo exhibition, running through April 24, covers three other routes, the Hokuso Line, the Keisei Line, and the Keikyu Line.

Promotional video clips are shown in each carriage of Expo Express trains on four routes. Around 1,300 photos are posted; they depict Shanghai's urban landscape, city life and planning for the Expo.

Carrying 4.95 million passengers a day, the four lines represent a mobile pavilion for the Expo, said Zhu Yonglei, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

Expo tickets will be sold by regional travel agencies. Several companies, including JTB and Kinki, have expressed interest.