Lucca Comics & Games has begun its activities at the Expo 2025 Osaka Universal Exposition, as part of the week dedicated to the Tuscany Region, entitled “Tuscany: Endless Renaissance.”
Announced via press release, Lucca Comics & Games will be participating as an example of Italian excellence and will serve as a bridge between Italy and Japan. As a way of cementing this relationship, the Ambassador of the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Yoshitaka Amano, will be donating three art pieces inspired by Puccini’s operas to the highest Italian institutional officials.
The first, a piece inspired by Tosca, was given to the Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The second, inspired by Madame Butterfly, which is called “a symbol of the relationship between the two cultures,”
was given to the Italian Ambassador to Japan and Commissioner for Italy at Expo 2025, Mario Vattani. The third piece, based on Turandot, was dedicated to the President of the Tuscan Region, Eugenio Giani. Region. A special fourth reproduction, depicting Pinocchio, was donated to the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli—who apparently is a great enthusiast of Amano’s art.
“Last year, Ambassador Mario Vattani signed a protocol to partner the Italian pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka with Lucca Comics & Games,” said director of Lucca Comics & Games Emanuele Vietina, adding, “for the first time, an Italian institution acknowledged in such a major way a community event dedicated to contemporary mythologies.”
Lucca Comics & Games’ presence at the Osaka Expo provided an opportunity to showcase the Lucca International Comics Museum, which unveiled its first renderings of the new building during the event. “This future permanent comics factory will be located in the old Tobacco Factory, a key industrial site for the Lucca community between the 19th and 20th centuries, and will become a key hub for creative industries,” said Vietina.
Also present at the Lucca Comics & Games pavilion was legendary manga artist Go Nagai—creator of characters such as Mazinger, Grendizer, and Devilman—who received the prestigious Pegasus Award for Culture from the Tuscany Region. Nagai, along with Emanuele Vietina and Tullia Carlino, held a panel dedicated to the influence of Dante Alighieri on his work.
