YOKOHAMA -- Japanese major construction company Kajima Corp. on Sept. 14 unveiled to the media for the first time the construction site of a wooden tower being built in its exhibition area for the International Horticultural Expo to be held in western Yokohama from March to September 2027.

The "Kajima Tree" tower will reuse timber from the "Grand Ring," the symbol of last year's Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai and will be assembled using an innovative construction method.

The structure is expected to stand about 60 meters tall, making it Kajima Corp.'s tallest wooden building. It will also be the company's first project to employ an advanced structural technology known as the "Kumiki seismic damping system," in which multiple units consisting of columns and beams equipped with seismic dampers are assembled to form the structure.

Kajima Corp. plans to monitor the tower's response to wind and other forces, with the aim of applying the technology to future projects such as office buildings and condominiums.

The company purchased 700 cubic meters of timber from the Grand Ring, equivalent to 3% of the wood used in the structure. Of that amount, 300 cubic meters have been repurposed to produce 450 components for the wooden tower.

Construction began in June, with the tower scheduled to be topped out by the end of October. Completion is targeted for February 2027.

The horticultural expo is scheduled to open on March 19, 2027, at the former Kamiseya Communications Facility site, which spans Yokohama's Seya and Asahi wards.

(Japanese original by Akihiro Nakajima, Business News Department)