Project to Excavate and Display Mammoth Enters Second Stage:

Memorandum of Understanding Signed with the Republic of Sakha, Russian Federation

As was announced on July 17, 2003, the Japan Association for the 2005 World Exposition has plans to excavate a mammoth-an animal believed to have gone extinct about 10,000 years ago-from the permafrost in Siberia and display it as a featured exhibition at EXPO 2005 AICHI, JAPAN. The Mammoth Excavation and Exhibition Organizing Committee was launched that day, and the first survey team was put together in August and sent to Siberia, where it has collected data and searched for ways to make this vision a reality.

During the team's investigation, it learned that a mammoth head had been discovered in the Ust-Yansky ulus of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russian Federation. Along with confirming the information, including the excavation site, the team held discussions with the governments of the Republic of Sakha, Russian Federation and as well as related organizations, in order to meet the necessary conditions for excavation and display of a mammoth at EXPO 2005.

As a result, the Japan Association for the 2005 World Exposition and the Republic of Sakha, which holds the rights to the excavated object, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on January 16, 2004, confirming that there will be additional joint excavations, that joint scientific research will be conducted on the object, and that it will be displayed at EXPO 2005 in the first such exhibition of a frozen mammoth specimen in the history of the world.

The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding has provided a major lift to EXPO 2005, and it will serve to further stimulate the interest of ordinary people in the Expo, boosting the number of visitors who will attend.

Details of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Republic of Sakha and the Japan Association for the 2005 World Exposition can be found on an attached sheet.