Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba visited the venue of the World Exposition in Osaka on Sunday to bring attention to the event that is experiencing slower advance ticket sales than organizers expected.

It is the first time since becoming Japan's leader in October that Ishiba has visited the site on the artificial island of Yumeshima, where construction of pavilions and other preparations continue with fewer than three months left until the expo opens.

Yumeshima Station, directly connected to the expo site, opened on Sunday, with over 130,000 people expected to use the new station on the Osaka Metro Chuo Line on a busy day.

A journey from the station to the major Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train station of Shin-Osaka takes about 40 minutes.

Some 7.5 million advance tickets for the expo were sold as of early January, well short of the organizers' target of 14 million.

The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition expects 28.2 million visitors during the event from April 13 to Oct. 13, with ticket sales anticipated to cover the event's operational costs.

The site's construction cost has nearly doubled from the initial estimate to 235 billion yen ($1.5 billion), with the central government, the Osaka prefectural and municipal governments and the private sector each bearing one-third.