Japanese housewife visited Shanghai Expo every day

SHANGHAI —

Tomiyo Yamada was perhaps the most frequent visitor to Shanghai World Expo. After the world exposition opened May 1, Yamada went to the showcase every day, visiting pavilions and exhibitions staged by more than 240 countries and organizations from around the world.

That feat put the 61-year-old Japanese housewife from Seto, Aichi Prefecture, into the limelight as the six-month Shanghai Expo drew to a close on Sunday.

Yamada, ‘‘the lady of Shanghai Expo,’’ was frequently featured in the Chinese media and even Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a point of remembering her in an address he made on the closing day of the expo.

But this is not the first time that Yamada has accomplished the most-frequent-visitor record at a world exposition.

When the 2005 Aichi World Expo came to her town in Seto, Yamada became a daily visitor to the first world exposition dedicated to the ecological theme.

‘‘Since Aichi Expo took up the environmental theme, I want to find out how the spirit was followed at Shanghai Expo,’’ she said in explaining why she decided to come to Shanghai.

Yamada said she had saved up 10 million yen after the Aichi Expo and moved to Shanghai in November last year and rented an apartment near the Shanghai Expo site.

Yamada wasn’t alone. She had been living in Shanghai together with her husband, Kanetoshi, 61, who had just retired, and their eldest son.

Yamada began visiting the Shanghai Expo site even before it was ready for public viewing. She said she went there to check on the various pavilions from the environmental perspective.

‘‘The Moroccan pavilion is interesting. The outer wall becomes soil again once it is demolished,’’ she recounted enthusiastically.

Last June, Yamada was stricken by fever from fatigue. And yet, she persevered. Yamada and her husband took a taxi to the expo and spent 20 minutes inside, allowing her to keep her determination to visit the expo every day intact.

‘‘My family was a big source of support for me to do this,’’ she said.

As bilateral ties between Japan and China plunged as a result of territorial disputes in the East China Sea, Shanghai Expo organizers withdrew an invitation to Yamada to attend China’s Oct. 1 National Day programs at the expo.

Yamada protested. ‘‘The world expo has no meaning unless it serves its mission as a venue for interaction among people of the world, irrespective of their nationality,’’ she said as she convinced the Shanghai Expo organizers to give her back the invitation.

Yamada’s spirit brought kudos from Premier Wen, when he spoke at an international forum of world politicians and academics held on the closing day of Shanghai Expo.

Yamada, Wen said, is the symbol of ‘‘profound friendship’’ linking China and the rest of the world.