The Grand Ring, the symbol of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai in Yumeshima, did not disappear when the expo closed. Some of its timber has travelled to the GREEN×EXPO 2027 venue in Yokohama, and another piece is set to stay in Yumeshima itself. Each destination has been announced by a different organisation, so no single source lays out the whole picture. Below is the state of play, as of September 2026, based on the official announcements this site could confirm.
At a glance
The table below shows where Grand Ring timber and parts have gone, or are due to go, how much, and when. Where a quantity has not been announced, it is marked “not disclosed.”
| Destination | What | How much | Timing | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KAJIMA TREE at GREEN×EXPO 2027 (Kajima Corporation) | Grand Ring timber | Not disclosed | Construction began 9 June 2026; completion date not announced | GREEN×EXPO Association, Kajima Corporation |
| Kanagawa Flower Bed at GREEN×EXPO 2027 (Kanagawa Prefecture) | Grand Ring timber | Not disclosed | To open with the Expo (19 March 2027) | Kanagawa Prefecture |
| RING PASS at GREEN×EXPO 2027 (GREEN×EXPO Association and City of Yokohama) | Grand Ring cedar (part of what the city received) | 2,027 passes; timber volume not disclosed | Lottery entries 18 to 30 September 2026; delivery February 2027 | GREEN×EXPO Association |
| Memorial park zone in Yumeshima (City of Osaka) | Grand Ring structure (northeast section) | About 200 metres; the surrounding memorial park zone is about 2.9 hectares | Preservation policy set 16 September 2025; development policy set 13 February 2026; public opening date not yet set | City of Osaka, Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition |
| Denpo and Fuku stations (Hanshin Electric Railway) | Grand Ring hinoki columns | Two columns | To be installed when the new station buildings open (date not set) | Hanshin Electric Railway |
| Kochi Prefecture | Grand Ring hinoki columns and CLT panels | 8 columns and 23 CLT panels, about 53 cubic metres | Handover planned for May to September 2026 | Kochi Prefecture |
GREEN×EXPO 2027: KAJIMA TREE, the Kanagawa Flower Bed and RING PASS
According to the GREEN×EXPO Association (the Association for the 2027 International Horticultural Exposition), Kajima Corporation received timber from the Grand Ring. It is using this timber in KAJIMA TREE, one of the Village pavilions. Kajima’s dedicated site describes the building as about 60 metres tall and one of Japan’s largest reclaimed-timber structures. A 1:100 model was unveiled on 13 May 2026, and construction broke ground on 9 June. How the timber will be worked, what visitors will see inside, and a completion date have not been announced as of September 2026.
Kanagawa Prefecture announced at its six-months-to-go event on 8 September 2026 that its pavilion, “Vibrant INOCHI Forest Kanagawa,” will reuse Grand Ring timber in the “Kanagawa Flower Bed” at the centre of its garden. The bed is planned to be planted through the year with prefecture-grown flowers, starting with rapeseed blossoms, then pansies, then sunflowers.
On 15 September 2026 the GREEN×EXPO Association announced the RING PASS, a season pass made from part of the Grand Ring timber that the City of Yokohama received from the Expo 2025 organiser: 2,027 cedar passes with serial numbers, sold by lottery at 50,000 yen including the pass fare and postage. Entries run from noon on 18 September to 30 September, with delivery in February 2027. This was the first sign that the city holds Grand Ring timber; how much, and what else it will be used for, is not stated (our report on RING PASS).
So far, the timber has gone to three quite different places: a company’s pavilion, a prefecture’s flower bed and an admission ticket made from the city’s share. Whether it has gone anywhere else has not been announced as of September 2026.
The 200 metres staying in Yumeshima
Back in Yumeshima, the ring’s fate is also taking shape. A study group made up of the national government, Osaka Prefecture, the City of Osaka, business organisations and the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition met four times from May 2025. At its fourth meeting on 16 September 2025, it settled on keeping part of the Grand Ring close to its original form. According to the Association’s published materials, the section to be kept is about 200 metres on the northeast side, next to the Healthcare Pavilion redevelopment zone in Yumeshima’s Phase 2 area. The reasons given are access from Yumeshima Station, and the fact that Phase 3, where reclamation work is still ahead, would take longer to open to the public.
Osaka Prefecture and the City of Osaka are calling for Phase 2 development proposals with this roughly 200-metre section and its surrounding area excluded, on the basis that the city will look at developing and maintaining the ring and its surroundings as a memorial park or green space. Ten-year renovation and maintenance costs have been estimated at about 5.5 billion yen if it is treated as an ancillary park structure, or about 9 billion yen if treated as a building.
The plan became more concrete at Osaka City’s strategy meeting on 13 February 2026. It set out a policy for the City of Osaka to develop and manage a “memorial park zone” of about 2.9 hectares that includes part of the Grand Ring, to maintain the roughly 200-metre northeast section as a park structure people can climb, and to build a new “(tentatively named) EXPO 2025 Memorial Hall.” This policy was written into the draft Yumeshima Phase 2 Area Master Plan Ver. 3.0 at the joint prefecture and city meeting on 30 April 2026. The explanatory material describes a memorial park zone of about 2.9 hectares holding the roughly 200-metre section of the ring, refitted as an observation deck, and a memorial hall presenting the expo’s record and technologies. The Expo Association estimates the refit at about 4 billion yen, funded from the expo surplus. After public comments from 1 May to 1 June and debate in the prefectural and city assemblies, Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City announced on 19 June 2026 that Ver. 3.0 had been adopted. As of September 2026, none of these documents gives a date for opening to the public.
The southwest section, about 350 metres, had also been a candidate for preservation, but is being dismantled. According to the Association’s published materials, growing demand for reused timber means this section, too, will be reused as much as possible.
Other destinations for the timber
The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition has been matching Grand Ring timber with new owners through its “Expo Circular Market, Myaku-ichi!” scheme. According to an announcement on 30 March 2026, four rounds of open bidding held by February 2026 are set to transfer about 4,000 cubic metres of timber to local governments and private companies. This site could not verify every individual destination, but found two confirmed by official announcements.
Hanshin Electric Railway announced on 9 June 2026 that it had paid to acquire two hinoki columns from the Grand Ring. It plans to work them into benches at the new station buildings for Denpo and Fuku stations on the Hanshin Namba Line.
Kochi Prefecture announced on 19 December 2025 that it had received, free of charge, eight hinoki columns and 23 CLT panels from the Grand Ring, about 53 cubic metres in total. Handover is planned for May to September 2026. The prefecture plans to use the material for replicas, monuments and fixtures, at gateways such as airports and stations, at the Yosakoi festival, and in children’s play equipment.
As of September 2026, this site has not been able to confirm official announcements about transfers to other local governments or companies.
Our take
The 1970 Osaka Expo kept a single symbol, the Tower of the Sun, standing whole in Expo Commemoration Park. The Grand Ring is being carried forward differently, in our view. About 200 metres on the northeast side will stay in Yumeshima in something close to its original form, while the rest is being dismantled and scattered as parts, to railway stations, prefectures and the Yokohama Expo. Rather than one structure surviving intact, this is a legacy of pieces spreading out to many places.
That is worth keeping in mind when looking at KAJIMA TREE or the Kanagawa Flower Bed at GREEN×EXPO 2027. What is on view there is not the Grand Ring relocated, but a piece of it. Picturing it alongside the roughly 200 metres remaining in Yumeshima gives a fuller sense of how the ring is being carried forward.
Other examples carried over from Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai are collected on the feature page “From Expo 2025.”