“Designing Future Society for Our Lives” is the theme of the World Expo currently taking place in Osaka, Japan, until October. From 25 to 30 May, the Belgian Pavilion at the Expo hosted Wallonia-Brussels Week. A major delegation of academics and businesses was present to showcase the know-how and excellence of French-speaking Belgium in fields as varied as industry 4.0, chocolate, and life sciences. Led by KIKK, the creative digital ecosystem wake! launched the week at the Belgian Pavilion with the event “No Borders, New Territories of Digital Creativity”.

Travelling 15,000 kilometres East inevitably raises many questions, the most significant of which concerns our relationship with otherness. Over the past decade, technology has equipped us well in the business world to manage these cultural contrasts: AI-assisted simultaneous translation, professional social media, and virtual reality to immerse ourselves in different realities. There are even chatbots with which we can discuss and challenge our Western perspectives. Yet nothing will ever replace the experience of setting foot on the ground, filling our lungs with the air, and tasting culinary subtleties in order to truly communicate and cultivate fertile ground for intercultural partnerships.

A Showcase for Wallonia Brussels technological excellence

Belgium, like Europe as a whole, shares several common challenges with Japan, such as decarbonisation, demographic ageing, and artificial intelligence. Digital creativity is also a field for development where Belgians and Japanese have opportunities to build projects together. At the end of May 2025, several representatives from the Walloon and Brussels digital creative industries set off for the Land of the Rising Sun, heading to Osaka to take part in the World Expo during Wallonia-Brussels Week at the Belgian Pavilion, and to join the “Society 5.0” economic mission.

The aim of AWEX and Wallonia-Brussels International, the organisers of the Week, was to provide a showcase for french-speaking belgian excellence, but also to create opportunities for meetings with potential japanese partners and clients. The initiative was held under the patronage of the two Minister-Presidents, Adrien Dolimont for Wallonia and Elisabeth Degryse for the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, as well as Pieter Decrem (Belexpo), Commissioner of the Belgian Pavilion at the World Expo.

The coordination of the “No Borders, New Territories of Digital Creativity” day was entrusted to KIKK, which had been planning its participation in the Osaka World Expo since 2023, given how much Japan serves as a source of inspiration for the entire creative sector, from animation to video games. “Since 2020, we have been curating the programming of the Digital Pavilion on the heights of the Namur citadel. This pavilion is, in fact, the Belgian Pavilion from the Milan 2015 World Expo, which was acquired by the City of Namur. It is a rare venue, as, alongside the Atomium and the Heysel Exhibition Palace, it is one of the only remaining World Expo heritage sites still open to visitors in Belgium. It is also unique, as KIKK exhibits international digital artistic creations there at the crossroads of science, technology, and societal issues”, explains Gilles Bazelaire, director of KIKK.

Creativity as a lever for a competitive and inclusive digital market

From Namur to Osaka, the route was clear: all that remained was for a strong CCI (Cultural and Creative Industries) delegation to set off and explore the lands of Sony, Nintendo, and Studio Ghibli. KIKK therefore brought together, under the banner of the “wake! By Digital Wallonia” ecosystem, some of the flagships of digital creativity, such as Laser System Europe (responsible for the light show on the Eiffel Tower at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games), Drop the Spoon (behind the recent “The Dancing Water” show in Macao, China), the Charleroi-based animation studio Dreamwall, well known for bringing to life popular IPs such as the Smurfs and Marsupilami, as well as Dirty Monitor, the mastermind behind the scenography of the Belgian Pavilion at the World Expo, which now generates 85% of its turnover internationally.

Also present were Brussels-based digital artists specialising in motion design and XR, Yann Deval and Laura Colmenares, and in the “neo-comics” field, the artist-researcher Ilan Manouach and his colleagues from the Echo Chamber collective, Sébastien Conard (Ghent University) and the philosopher-publisher Laurent de Sutter. 

Not to mention Wallimage, the Walloon fund supporting audiovisual and digital creativity. “The mission enabled us to meet japanese companies active in the sectors covered by Wallimage, which I hope will lead to collaborations with Walloon companies in our portfolio,” commented Wallimage’s director, Virginie Nouvelle. “One of the companies we met there has already contacted me by email to explore potential opportunities.”

This day dedicated to the CCIs at the Belgian Pavilion was marked by lively and dynamic exchanges around the idea of creativity as a lever to make the digital market not only more competitive, but also more inclusive. The event brought together a diverse audience of japanese, belgian (including the Brussels-based YouTuber Tikal, director of the RTBF Ixpé series “Le Dit du Gaijin” and now based in Tokyo), and french guests, such as the franco-luxembourgish artist duo Emilie Brout and Maxime Marion, who are currently in residence just a few kilometres away at Villa Kujoyama run by the French Cultural Institute in Kyoto.

“To defend creativity, said Minister of Culture Elisabeth Degryse in her opening remarks, is not to resist change, but to embrace it, to showcase it, to share it, and to nurture it.”

At the heart of the debates, led by wake! and KIKK, a wide range of topics driving the creative industry were discussed. These included the power of immersive storytelling and the impact of generative AI. The latter is challenging the entire sector to come together as ecosystems in order to scale up and develop new skills, and to face multiple transformations. For example, the traditionally artisanal world of comics is now being transformed through data, becoming a whole new field of experimentation for the digital humanities. Finally, the discussions explored how digital creativity is becoming a key to understanding reality, sparking wonder, and generating empathy as a driver for engagement. This day for digital creativity professionals enabled encounters and exchanges around common challenges, whether in the East or the West. Among those who shared their experiences were the creative studio Cosmic Lab, based in Osaka (Athens Digital Arts Festival, Astana World Expo 2017, etc.), founded by digital artist VJ Colo Muller and rooted in Osaka’s underground cultural scene, as well as a team from Sapporo (a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, like Namur) representing the Sapporo International Digital Art Festival, who travelled 1,500 km south to Osaka specifically to meet the organisers and explore Belgium-Japan collaborations.

Alice Gorissen, CEO of Dreamwall, said: “Above all, I take away the richness of the exchanges and the collaborative dynamic that developed around the creative and digital industries. This trip allowed me to see just how much the diversity of our artistic and technological approaches is a strength in international dialogue, particularly with Japanese ecosystems”. Gilles Bazelaire added, “I sincerely hope that this day will be a starting point, a conversation that does not end on 26 May but can give rise to new projects and, who knows, new ways of imagining the world”, especially in the context of the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Belgium and Japan, to be celebrated in 2026.

World Expos: Global Innovation Ecosystems

Designed to showcase human ingenuity since their inception in London in the 19th century, World Expos are, in themselves, ecosystems of innovation where creative businesses can forge new connections. The CCI business delegation took advantage of their presence to visit several pavilions: the interactive and immersive scenographies of the Canadian, Dutch, and French pavilions, for example, were designed and developed by studios or artists such as Mirari, Après Minuit (Canada), Tellart (Netherlands), Justine Emard, and GSM Project (France). The World Expo also offers the chance to discover so-called “signature” pavilions, such as the impressive “Null2” by Japanese digital artist Yoichi Ochiai. There is also the daily show “One World, One Planet”, which features drone displays and projection mapping on water curtains, showcasing the expertise of Laser System Europe (Braine L’Alleud). “After having had the opportunity to visit several pavilions at the site of the World Expo, I believe we can say that we have nothing to be ashamed of in what we have produced; as Belgium, we can be proud of both the interior and exterior arrangements,” shared Arnaud Meulemeester (Dirty Monitor) during the closing speech of the Wallonia-Brussels Week.

From Osaka, the delegation headed to Tokyo to meet with teams from Panasonic Connect, Dentsu Live (enjoying a view of the Japanese skyline from the 40th floor of a skyscraper—see photo), and the brand manager of TeamLab (here, at the TeamLab Planets facility), the pioneering Japanese studio in neuro-aesthetic experiences with locations across the globe (Tokyo, New York, Abu Dhabi, Hamburg, Singapore). They also met with the newly established Dragone Japan, a branch of the well-known Louvière-based group, which fully embraces the legacy of the late Franco Dragone’s mega-productions. This series of stimulating exchanges validated the economic development model for CCIs “as an ecosystem”. The structure of wake! generated considerable interest among the japanese partners encountered, as it provides a coordinated gateway for technology and experience producers to access a pool of content creators, event operators, and a wide range of expertise in high-level creative technology.

Far from Tokyo’s skyscrapers, the delegation’s final stop was Kyoto, where they discovered Villa Kujoyama, part of the French Cultural Institute of Japan: each year, 250 applications are reviewed, and 15 solo artists or duos across 17 different disciplines are selected for a four- to six-month artistic residency. On the first Thursday of every month, the villa is open to the public, offering a chance to discover the inner workings of artistic residencies and to immerse oneself in the world of the inspiring franco-luxembourgish media artist duo Emilie Brout and Maxime Marion. Part of their work has joined the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and one of their recent pieces was described by the renowned magazine “Les Inrocks” as a “Frankenstein for the AI era”.

“Opening up the field of future possibilities” between East and West

Engaging with otherness is about narrowing all kinds of distances, as XR artist Laura Colmenares, who took part in the mission, explains: “My participation in Japan opened up a field of possibilities for me to apply for calls for projects with a country that previously seemed inaccessible, too far away. Understanding the culture and having a presence on the ground makes it possible to imagine collaborations for the future”.

For the future is already where Japan stands, if we consider the country’s advanced development of the “Society 5.0” concept: a society in which advanced technologies (AI, IoT, robotics) are responsibly integrated into every aspect of life to improve quality of life, address social challenges (such as an ageing population), and place humans at the centre of innovation to build a smarter, more connected and sustainable future. “A project that fully integrates the cultural and creative industries”, according to Raphaëlle Albessard, Senior Industry Specialist for the Mechanical Industry at AWEX, who designed the entire “Society 5.0” visit programme for the Japan economic mission.

These are the connections that KIKK fully intends to capitalise on for the benefit of the entire wake! by Digital Wallonia ecosystem. “We were in the right place at the right time: coming as a delegation helps open doors, and we were able to make excellent contacts with very high-potential companies. I am thinking in particular of Hakuhodo and Dentsu, with whom we are continuing discussions, which is very promising for the medium term”, says Laurent Rossion (LSE) with confidence.

Radjiny Schiltz (Drop the Spoon) adds: “Confronting our approach with other cultural and professional frameworks has strengthened my conviction that our creations resonate far beyond our borders”.

An East-West vision that offers exciting prospects for creative digital Wallonia.

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