Before Paris, there was Tokyo: How Japan Built First Timber Olympic Stadium in Generations!

Japan is the world’s fourth-largest importer of timber products-behind just China, the United States, and the European Union-with the world’s third-largest economy imported more than 3,340,000 cubic metres of lumber last year.
At the same time that imports remain strong, Japan is also cutting down millions of cypress trees, changing building standards, and investing in high-value timber production. The upshot is that the Japanese timber industry is booming, with mid-rise mass timber buildings rising fast across Tokyo and work underway on the World Expo site in Osaka-which, naturally, is being built out of timber.
Last week, Wood Central exclusively spoke to Yuichiro Shinohara, CEO and President of Shinohara Shoten, one of Japan’s largest timber fabricators. Shinohara Shoten supplies timber to more than 4,000 projects every year.