Taoiseach Micheál Martin is attending Expo 25 in Osaka, Japan - a global exhibition of cutting-edge technology and industry which is expected to attract 28 million visitors over six months.
150 countries are participating in the Expo - with Ireland's multi-million euro pavilion focused on the theme that "Creativity Connects People".
It comes as the Taoiseach and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba held talks in Tokyo to discuss deepening trade links, bilateral relations and cybersecurity.
Mr Martin said the Prime Minister was also aware of the challenges facing the Irish Government regarding its coastline, a reference to the fact that that around 75% of 550+ international subsea cables pass through or close to Irish waters.
The overall theme for Expo 25 is "Designing Future Society for Our Lives".
World exhibitions date back to 1851, have hosted the first demonstration of a telephone, the first live TV broadcast and produced such iconic buildings such as the Eiffel Tower.
Expo 25 is being held on a dedicated 155-hectare site on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay.
The entire exhibition is surrounded by an elevated circular walkway, the Grand Roof, with three districts inside it.
Ireland’s pavilion is located in the Empowering Lives section, and the multiple exhibits seek to demonstrate the potential that creativity has to empower people to solve global challenges.
Irish participation in Expo 25 has cost more than €16 million over the past three years, with the pavilion itself accounting for nearly €7 million of that total.
Tánaiste Simon Harris told the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs recently that joining Expo 25 provides "an excellent platform for public diplomacy for Ireland, because Ireland remains relatively unknown among the wider Japanese public".
The design of the Irish pavilion, which is located near the main entrance, combines Irish timber with Japanese building materials in the form of an abstracted Celtic spiral, or triskele, the ancient Irish motif dating back to Neolithic times, and used at sacred sites, such as Newgrange.
The pavilion is clad in Irish-grown Douglas fir timber, provided by Coillte, which the architects from the Office of Public Works say echoes the wood of the nearby Grand Roof, and evokes a connection between Irish and Japanese craft.
Outside the pavilion is located a monumental sculpture conceptualised by Joseph Walsh and sits in a landscape designed by Hiroyuki Tsujii, the custodian of the Karasaki Pine Tree.
On the walls of the pavilion VIP space, located on the first floor, are specially framed ‘Kwaidan Project’ prints.
These are an Irish-Japanese cultural collaboration of prints & photographs by 40 Japanese and Irish artists, inspired by Lafcadio Hearn's masterpiece 'Kwaidan'.
