Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan will be held from April 13 to October 13 under the theme of “Envisioning a Vibrant Future Society”. The Chinese Pavilion was officially opened on April 13, 2025 on the occasion of the opening of the Osaka World Expo. Beijing King&Capital Law Firm's construction legal service team was honored to participate in the whole process of legal services during the construction period.
The team was honored to participate in the whole process of legal services during the construction period of the Chinese Pavilion due to its previous experience in overseas special legal services, legal counseling and dispute resolution for museum construction and exhibition projects. Reviewing the whole legal service period, the team summarized some of the gains and achievements and shared them with you.
I. Difficulties in the whole process of legal services during the construction period of China Pavilion
China Pavilion
China Pavilion covers an area of about 3,500 square meters and is one of the largest foreign-built pavilions at the Osaka World Expo. It will be built around the theme of “Building a Community of Life between Humanity and Nature - Green Development of the Future Society” with the theme of “The Unity of Heaven and Humankind” and “The Unity of Nature” and “The Unity of the World”. The pavilion will focus on the theme of “Building a Community of Life between Humanity and Nature - The Future Society of Green Development” and take the three chapters of “Unity of Heaven and Humankind”, “Green Water and Green Mountains” and “Unending Life” as the main narrative line, showcasing the traditional ecological wisdom nurtured by 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, presenting the concepts and achievements of green development in the new era, and looking ahead to the future development of China and It will also showcase the concepts and achievements of green development in the new era, and look forward to the beautiful vision of China and the rest of the world working together to build a community of life between man and nature.
1. The legal service for the whole process of the construction period of the China Pavilion was time-critical, task-heavy and demanding, and there was no room for any failure in legal compliance during the construction period.
Relevant departments attach great importance to China's participation in the Osaka World Expo, and CCPIT has earnestly implemented the work, set up a working mechanism for the preparation of the China Pavilion in conjunction with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and other 10 departments, and co-ordinated resources of all parties to solidly push forward the preparatory work of the China Pavilion.
China Pavilion covers an area of about 3,500 square meters and is one of the largest foreign-built pavilions at the Osaka World Expo. It centers around the theme of “Building a Community of Life between Humanity and Nature - Green Development of the Future Society”, and is based on the theme of “Unity of Nature and Human Beings” and “Green Water”. The three chapters of “Unity of Heaven and Humankind”, “Green Water and Green Mountains” and “Endless Life” serve as the main narrative line, showcasing the traditional ecological wisdom nurtured by 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, presenting the concepts and achievements of green development in the new era, and looking forward to the future development of China and the rest of the world. The exhibition will display the traditional ecological wisdom nurtured by the 5000 years of Chinese civilization, display the concept and achievements of green development in the new era, and look forward to the beautiful vision of China and the rest of the world to build a community of life between man and nature.
The realization of the above requirements must be in the exhibition of ideas, construction, there can not be any problem. 2024 early we formally intervene in less than a year and a half from the museum, for such a major and artistic requirements of the project construction cycle, the time is very tight.
2. The bidding and tendering, creative consulting, civil construction, exhibition construction, completion and acceptance, and settlement during the construction period must be legal and compliant.
The China Pavilion at the World Expo represents the concepts, achievements and beautiful visions of China in the new era, and is a window to show China. The project is located in Japan, and it is a project led by CCPIT as the owner. During the construction period, it is necessary to comply not only with all the requirements of laws, standards and norms of the project location, but also with the requirements of laws, regulations, standards and norms related to construction works in China, which puts forward a double standard and double legal service requirements for the compliance of the project.
3. The characteristics of the construction industry in Japan are different from those in China, which also increase the difficulty of legal services.
Domestic construction industry is a construction unit-led market, construction companies to participate in the bidding actively, but Japan's domestic construction companies have a full choice of projects, commonly referred to as “fewer porridge”, the choice of construction companies is not as full as in the country. This brings higher requirements on construction bidding, which should not only conform to the actual market and legal regulations of the construction industry in Japan, but also conform to the strict requirements of domestic laws and regulations on bidding.
4. The exhibition engineering department is the same as the general construction project, and has its special characteristics.
Cultivation and Weaving
The China Pavilion brings knowledge and joy to visitors inside and outside the Pavilion through a large number of interactive installations and digitalized technology and AI technology. The pavilion displays a digitized version of the ancient Chinese classic “Cultivation and Weaving”, as well as a video of the Shenzhou 19 astronauts in the space station, a moon soil exhibition area and the “Jiaolong” experience capsule, among other things.
The exhibition project has special characteristics such as the project should be artistic, the qualification management is different, the non-standard nature of the production, and the cost without fixed reference. For the team services of the exhibition project, in the settlement audit, administrative review and dispute resolution process, I have written an article, in which there is a sentence describing the cost disputes arising from the exhibition project, “If the contractor hangs a ‘Mona Lisa’ authentic If the contractor hangs a “Mona Lisa” as a piece of artwork and hangs a printed “Mona Lisa”, the project cost may be a difference of several museum's project cost.
Second, the whole process of legal services carried out by the team
1. The team is fully mobilized to participate in legal services
Beijing King&Capital Law Firm's construction legal services team is located in the real estate and infrastructure sector, all of them have rich experience in construction legal services, a total of 11 lawyers, including three partners (now five), interns. All of them are involved in this project.
2. Content of the whole process legal service
We determined the content of the whole process legal service with Party A, which is comprehensive and specific: (1) provide consulting support on laws, regulations, rules and interpretation of laws and regulations of China and Japan related to construction, bidding and tendering, costing and management; (2) provide legal adviser's opinion on the legality and feasibility of bidding work plan and organization; (3) review bidding and contract documents, issue legal adviser's opinion and communicate with the whole consulting team and provide legal advice to the whole consulting team; (4) provide legal advice to the whole consulting team and provide legal advice to the whole consulting team. team, provide support to the consulting team, and participate in discussions with the owner when necessary; (4) provide legal advice in bidding, bid opening and bid evaluation, if there are questions and complaints; (5) assist in contract negotiations, and provide legal advice on contract documents formed in the negotiations; (6) provide consulting services and legal advice during the completion of the settlement period, if there are inquiries and questions; (7) cooperate with the financial audit and final accounts period, if there are questions and complaints; (8) provide legal advice in the financial audit and final accounts period, if there are inquiries and challenges; and (9) provide legal advice in the financial audit and final accounts period. (7) Provision of consulting services and legal opinions during financial auditing and finalization of accounts in the event of inquiries or challenges; (8) Provision of other legal and regulatory advice, document review and legal opinions at various stages of the project.
3. Identification of Japanese laws
The China Pavilion project was located in Japan, and the team needed to identify the laws of Japan in the field of construction engineering. The identification of laws is a very difficult task in itself, involving the language of writing, the origin, tradition and application of national laws, and the construction sector laws, as well as understanding the characteristics of the construction industry in the host country.
At that time, one of our attorneys, who majored in Japanese, had collected a Word version of the construction-related laws of Japan, which totaled 21.4MB, including the Construction Industry Law, the Construction Industry Enforcement Decree, the Construction Industry Enforcement Prefectural Decree, the Architects Law, the Law for the Promotion of Justification of Bidding and Contracting for Public Works, and the Law for the Promotion of the Quality of Public Works, and so on. We have also translated the above laws into Chinese and further compared them with domestic laws on specific issues.
For example, the Construction Industry Law of Japan is divided into 8 chapters and 55 articles, including general provisions (purpose and definition), construction licensing, construction contracting and related dispute resolution, provisions related to securing construction technology and other practitioners, supervision, the Central Construction Industry Deliberation Council, miscellaneous provisions, and penalties, which will be effective as of May 28, 2021. The Construction Law of the People's Republic of China is divided into 8 chapters and 85 articles, including the General Provisions, Construction Permit, Contracting and Offering of Construction Works, Supervision of Construction Works, Management of Construction Safety, Management of Construction Quality, Legal Liability, and Supplementary Provisions, and was amended on April 23, 2019.
4. “Dual compliance” in bidding and tendering, contract review, civil construction, exhibition construction, completion and acceptance, and settlement in the project
On the basis of the laws of Japan, where the project is located, and in conjunction with the actual situation of the construction and engineering industry in Japan, it is also necessary to comply with the requirements of China's laws, regulations, norms and standards for bidding, procurement, construction, settlement and other construction processes. For example, the provisions of collusive bidding, which is called “bidding conspiracy, etc.” in Japanese law (“Law Concerning the Punishment of Acts that Exclude, Prevent, and Impair the Fairness of the Entry of Bids and Other Acts by Employees in the 14th Year of the Heisei Period, Law No. 100-1”), the basic provisions of the law are the same. The identification and enumeration of the circumstances of collusive bidding should be in accordance with both the requirements of Chinese law and Japanese law. When formulating construction contracts, we should study Japan's Construction Industry Law, Construction Industry Enforcement Decree, Construction Industry Enforcement Provincial Decree, etc., the Chinese translation can only be auxiliary, and should not be applied blindly, and domestic scholars have done little research on the subject, and the text sometimes needs to be confirmed by contacting with our lawyers in King&Capital Law Office in Tokyo, and we also need to carry out research and study on professional construction system and industry management, which is both work and study.
In the process of reviewing the contract, especially the construction contract, because the contractor must be a registered contractor in Japan, and the procurement contract where the supplier is a Japanese company, it is very important to calculate the amount of work and settle the price of the work in a way and in a way that maintains the interests of the construction unit while not violating the provisions of the laws of Japan. In dispute settlement, to the principle of fairness and justice, choose the way that is favorable to the construction unit dispute settlement. Adopting arbitration, the selection of the arbitration institution, the seat of arbitration, the applicable language, and the law becomes particularly important. This project finally chooses the domestic arbitration institution, the place of arbitration is in China, and the Chinese law and language are applicable.
5. Legal Consultation on the Implementation of Exhibition Project
Exhibition project is a construction project for the purpose of exhibition and display in various places such as planning halls, science and technology halls, museums, memorial halls, theme halls, industry halls, exhibition halls and other places, as well as the supporting services such as indoor decoration design and production, light environment design and production, exhibition equipment design and production, exhibition combination design and production, auxiliary exhibits design and production, high and new technology exhibition design and production, landscape design and production, audience service system design and production and so on. The design and production of audience service system and other auxiliary engineering projects.
Qualification can also be seen on the exhibition of the special nature of the project, the exhibition of the cultural and biological engineering qualification is divided into two kinds: one is issued by the Ministry of Housing and Construction (national formal official recognition) decoration engineering design and construction of integrated one-level qualification (the old qualification) decorative decoration engineering design class A qualification, decorative decoration engineering contracting class A qualification (the new qualification); the old qualification is the design, construction of the two as a whole, a certificate. The new qualification is design and construction separately, two certificates. The other type is the exhibition hall association issued by the exhibition project design and construction integration of one level of qualification (old qualification) exhibition project construction one level of qualification, exhibition project design class A qualification (new qualification). There are both decorative decoration and artwork display, exhibition content, can not use construction engineering legal thinking alone to consider its design, construction, settlement of the situation.
Based on the team's many years of service in various museum construction and dispute resolution, we provide legal services based on a full understanding of the themes and creative inspirations of the owners and designers, centering on laws, regulations, norms and standards compliance.
6.Efficient Communication
First of all, the team and service customers to establish a WeChat work group, the group of parties to set up a docking person, timely receipt of documents or consultations, timely feedback to each other. Need to contact the team specifically responsible for personnel to deal with, to determine the time and processing of other personnel of the team, the group feedback to the other party. Secondly, regular meetings on the progress of the service and the next step to make work arrangements; specific issues of the work of the meeting, held from time to time. The form of the meeting is to try to online meetings, individual offline meetings or a combination of online and offline form. Finally, individual issues voice, telephone direct communication.
III. Service Summary
Osaka World Expo China Pavilion construction period of the whole process of legal services is a business, but also an honorable task. Although after the official opening of the pavilion on April 13, 2025, there will be subsequent legal issues that need to be serviced, but the service to this point is enough to benefit the team. I am not afraid to talk about the experience, but only make a summary of the service.
1. Good legal services, the industry and the law must be well understood
Good legal services, not only to enable customers to achieve the desired goals, but also to achieve good social results, especially non-litigation legal services. Do not understand the industry simply say the law, will result in mechanization of the application and use of the law; understand the industry but not the depth of the law, the only industry, the only practice, deviating from the legal jurisprudence of the rules established by the original intention. For example, the construction engineering industry, there are many dependents, subcontracting, illegal subcontracting, do not understand the industry, may be in the legal services, ignore this often may occur in the industry, ignore the disadvantages of compliance management. Another example is the construction industry about bidding, if you understand the contract because the contract should be bidding and not bidding resulting in the contract is invalid, the contract is invalid after the legal consequences of the two sides to return or discounted compensation, how to return, how to discounted compensation, it may not be clear, is the construction contractor will be the real estate demolition of the contractor back to the labor, materials? Obviously this has become a mechanical application of the law, do not understand the situation of the construction industry.
2. Foreign law should be identified accurately
The team in the service of foreign construction projects or foreign factors involved in the construction project dispute resolution, often encountered the problem of law identification. There are many difficulties for lawyers to identify the law. (1) There are differences in legal systems. The location of the project for this service is in the country of Japan, which belongs to the civil law system, but we have also served projects in other countries or regions, and there are differences in legal systems. The civil law system, the common law system of legislative principles, legal concepts and procedures are different, the civil law system of statutory law and the application of case law of the common law system, domestic lawyers will be difficult to grasp. (2) Language and cultural differences. The problem of language is an obstacle, but still can be made up through previous study and accumulation, but cultural differences can not be understood by study. Cultural traditions shape the finalization of legal rules. (3) Difficulty in locating laws. How to find out the extraterritorial laws, although there is the Internet, but the Internet can not be all the extraterritorial laws, technical limitations also bring difficulties in finding out the laws. (4) Rapid updating of laws and regulations makes identification untimely. Especially the piece of compliance, the policy changes of extraterritorial countries will put forward new requirements for compliance, as evidenced by the recent tariff policy of a certain country.
Fortunately, artificial intelligence is now developing rapidly, but of course our team did not understand artificial intelligence when we served. The emergence of deepseek, for example, will certainly bring convenience to legal identification, but also have to be careful with AI hallucination.
3. Sincere Cooperation and Efficient Communication among All Parties
The whole process of legal services for the China Pavilion project involves construction units, consulting and design units, general contractors and other parties, each of which is a “national team” in the industry, and all of which cooperate and dedicate themselves for the sake of their responsibilities and tasks. For example, we try our best to take care of other parties' schedules in both online and offline meetings, and we will selflessly and diligently explain our professional problems to other parties. Professional skills, clear purpose of cooperation, good attitude and atmosphere of cooperation are the basis of sincere cooperation.
