You may know that the theme song for Expo ‘70 was “Hello from all over the world song,” but did you know that this song has nine versions?
The most famous version is the one sung by Haruo Minami, but actually there are nine other versions by singers like Kyu Sakamoto, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Linda Yamamoto, and so on. Back then, recording labels were competing with each other and released their own versions at the same time.
Back then, there was still no internet, so Shirai had to work extra hard to get every version. Day after day, he’d go to various record stores after work and whenever he had a business trip to see if they had the versions he was looking for.
Sometimes he’d make unexpected discoveries while the store owner looked to see if they had the record he was looking for. While continuing this treasure hunt for a decade, he finally completed his collection and a portion of it is displayed here.
Though the main theme song is “Hello from all over the world,” there are countless subsongs and motivational songs from the Expo. The famous song: “Children Who Don’t Know War,” was made to be sung at the Expo.