OSAKA — Yumeshima Station opened Sunday morning on a reclaimed island in Konohana Ward, Osaka, the location of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo.

The first train departed from the underground station at 5:02 a.m.

The Expo will take place on Yumeshima Island from April 13 to Oct. 13, and the station’s ticket gates connect to the venue’s East Gate.

The first train from the station, which is on Osaka Metro Co.’s Chuo Line, was bound for Kintetsu Railway Co.’s Kintetsu Gakken-Nara-Tomigaoka Station in Nara City. The train had a special plate on the front and the rear featuring the words “Yumeshima 2025.”

About 20 people, including Osaka Metro President Hideaki Kawai, attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony and saw the train off.

A 23-year-old male company employee from Sanda, Hyogo Prefecture, said he had been waiting in line at the station since 7:30 p.m. on Saturday to board the first train. “The feeling that the Expo is near has gotten strong,” he said. “I want to go to the venue many times.”

A 10-year-old fourth-grade elementary school boy from Osaka City, who came to Yumeshima Island for the first time, said he also wants to see the venue under construction from the outside.

The new station, located in the center of Yumeshima Island, was constructed by extending the Chuo Line by 3.2 kilometers from Cosmosquare Station in Suminoe Ward, Osaka. The Yumeshima Station will be used mainly by construction workers until the opening of the Expo.>