Osaka Expo’s Iconic Wooden Ring Features Fukushima Timber

The Grand Ring greets visitors to the pavilion area. (Courtesy Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition)

FLAM’s laminate production facility is 60 meters wide and 240 meters long. (© Nippon.com)

Asada Timber CEO and Woodcore director, Asada Hidehiro. (© Nippon.com)

The vast FLAM site seen from a nearby hill. (© Nippon.com)

Thick laminated timber ready for shipping. (© Nippon.com)

A high-frequency press enables mass production. (© Nippon.com)

The factory employs 50 staff. (© Nippon.com)

Most lumber is sourced from within Fukushima: cedar from Tamura and larch from Minamiaizu. (© Nippon.com)

Thick, laminated structural timber has been used for the columns and beams in the building that houses the plant’s lumber facility. (© Nippon.com)

The production line incorporates cesium counters. (© Nippon.com)

Logs that are too large for standard saws are more labor-intensive to process. (© Nippon.com)

Wood pieces left behind during production, called offcuts, are turned into woodchips and fuel for dryers. (© Nippon.com)

Offcuts are burned to generate heat, which is sent along pipes to dryers. (© Nippon.com)

The proposed design for the Namie Station precinct. (Courtesy Namie government; © Kengo Kuma and Associates)

Asada said emphatically at the end of his interview that he wanted Namie to be a happening place again. (© Nippon.com)