site.btaApril LIK Issue on Bulgaria and the World Expos Presented Concurrently in Osaka, Sofia and 40 BTA Press Clubs

The April issue of LIK magazine, titled Bulgaria and the World Expos and published in English and Japanese is set to be presented simultaneously in Osaka, Sofia and in 40 Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) national press clubs across Bulgaria and abroad on Sunday.

The Bulgarian Pavilion at Expo 2025 hosts the event on Bulgaria Day, which President Rumen Radev attended during his official visit to Japan. BTA Director General Kiril Valchev is set to present the issue of LIK magazine before Japanese university students studying Bulgarian. A live link connects the pavilion with the MaxiM multimedia hall at BTA headquarters in Sofia and with the 40 press clubs.

The April edition is inspired by the World Expo’s opening on April 13, 2025, where Bulgaria is represented with a top-tier type A national pavilion.

BTA reporter Ivan Lazarov was a special correspondent in Japan last month and covered the pavilion’s opening, reporting both official reactions and visitors’ impressions. Some guests associate Bulgaria with yoghurt, while others describe it as “a hospitable country, part of the wider European family”. Highlights from Lazarov’s reports appear in the magazine.

The issue recalls writer and public figure Aleko Konstantinov, who wrote about several world fairs. His travelogue “To Chicago and Back” chronicles the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, while earlier journeys took him to the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris and the 1891 fair in Prague, both mentioned in his book “Bay Ganyo”.

Ivelina Gabrovska, director of the Historical Museum in Svishtov — Konstantinov’s home town — writes that Konstantinov “saw Bulgaria within the modern world, travelling with curiosity and the desire to measure the Bulgarian against the foreign”.

“Bulgaria will be where it belongs — next to the world powers at Expo 2025,” Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) Director Boyko Takov says for LIK magazine. BSMEPA heads the inter-institutional working group preparing Bulgaria’s participation. “Bulgaria cannot stand aside. We have to become a factor, especially in tourism, investment and science,” Takov adds.

Members of the conceptual team behind the pavilion — architect Maria Gospodinova, Iskren Krustev and MP-STUDIO representatives Marin Petkov, Strahil Yordanov and Marin Dimitrov — say the Bulgarian pavilion offers “a personal experience that inspires, engages and leaves a mark”.

Fifty-five years ago Bulgaria also joined the World Expo in Osaka. LIK revisits BTA coverage from 1970, when the aluminium-and-glass pavilion of four pyramid peaks drew local headlines. Emperor Hirohito was among the visitors, and members of the Imperial family tasted yoghurt for the first time — an experience that helped popularize the product in Japan under the name of Bulgaria.

“Co-operation between Bulgaria and Japan took on new dimensions after our participation in Expo ’70,” engineer Ivan Popyordanov, who developed the pavilion’s audio-visual section, said.

The magazine tells the story of the Children’s Radio Choir of Bulgarian Radio and Television, whose performances under conductor Hristo Nedyalkov impressed Japanese audiences at Expo ’70.

LB Bulgaricum explains “Bulgarian Yoghurt – From the Thracians to Mars”, noting that on every continent yoghurt is synonymous with Bulgaria and with health and strength thanks to its high content of Lactobacillus bulgaricus.

"Across all continents, yogurt is synonymous with Bulgaria, and Bulgarian yogurt stands as a symbol of health and strength. This holds true from Germany and Norway, through Japan, South Korea, China, and Thailand, reaching as far as distant Guatemala."

Kazanlak Municipality shares legends and historical facts about the oil-bearing rose that grows in Kazanlak and the Valley of Roses, celebrated since 1903 by the Rose Festival. The municipality recalls that the Japanese city of Fukuyama became a twin town in 1995, followed in 2010 by Munakata. In Japan, 2 June is marked as Rose Day because the date, pronounced “ro-zu”, echoes the flower’s name.

LIK includes news highlights on Bulgaria–Japan diplomatic and cultural relations preserved in BTA archives. Diplomatic ties were established in 1939, when Envoy Extraordinary Teruo Hashiya presented his credentials to the Bulgarian monarch. The text recalls mutual visits by political leaders, Imperial family members and numerous bilateral initiatives.

A brief history of world expositions traces the series from the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London to the present day, and covers the International Fair in Plovdiv, launched on August 15, 1892. The fairgrounds, built from 1947, hosted three specialized world expos: the World Hunting Exhibition in 1981, the World Exhibition of Young Inventors in 1985, and its second edition in 1991.

A thematic chronology shows how BTA has reported on world expos since 1900. Some of the earliest publications on this topic date back to 1900, when the World’s Fair was held in Paris, France. The chronology covers both the universal expositions and two of their branches—specialized and horticultural world expositions, which have also taken place over the years.

The issue also profiles the BTA archive. In 2021 the agency set up an Archives and Reference Directorate comprising the Historical Archive, Reference, Photo and Video Archive and the Library. In 2023 BTA and partner institutions launched the project Digitization of Museum Collections, Libraries and Archives under Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, equipping a modern digitization centre. New archive repositories were opened on February 16, 2025, the 127th anniversary of BTA’s first bulletin.

Since January 2024 LIK has been freely accessible. All issues since its revival in 2022 can be downloaded from the BTA website. The April issue “Bulgaria and the World Expos” is available in Bulgarian, English and Japanese.