OSAKAJun 03 (News On Japan) – Next year’s Osaka-Kansai Expo plans to offer free admission to children, which has attracted interest from about 70% of schools in Osaka Prefecture.
Osaka Prefecture has promoted a project to invite children from the age of four through high school to the Expo free of charge. An investigation was conducted in late May to determine the schools’ intentions. Of the 1,900 schools, approximately 70%, or 1,390 schools, have expressed their wish to participate.
However, approximately 20% (310) schools responded that they were “undecided or considering”, and the remaining 200 schools did not respond.
The initiative has received some criticism over its research methodology. For example, Mayor Kageyama of the city of Katano indicated that no school in his city wanted to participate and decided to abandon the initiative at the school level. In addition, some critics pointed out that the survey did not provide an option for “not interested,” forcing schools to choose “undecided or considering” to avoid follow-up investigations from the prefecture. This has led to questions about the integrity of the survey process.
Source: YOMIURI
