Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai closed on 13 October 2025. A year on, the venue at Yumeshima and the companies and local governments involved in the Expo have kept announcing where its legacy is heading. Broadly, it falls into three groups: things coming to the GREEN×EXPO 2027 venue in Yokohama, things staying in Yumeshima or Osaka, and things sent elsewhere. Below is what this site could confirm from official announcements as of September 2026. Where a demolition or removal has not been officially confirmed, we do not describe it as gone; we list only what has a confirmed destination.
Coming to the Yokohama Expo
| What | Where | Status | Timing | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Ring timber | KAJIMA TREE (Kajima Corporation) | Construction under way; processing method and exhibit content not announced | Groundbreaking 9 June 2026; completion date not announced | GREEN×EXPO Association, Kajima Corporation |
| Grand Ring timber | Kanagawa Flower Bed (Kanagawa Prefecture) | Announced | To open with the Expo (19 March 2027) | Kanagawa Prefecture |
| Facade and equipment of Panasonic’s “Nomo no Kuni” | Yasashiku Naritai. STUDIO (Toho Leo) | Announced; exhibit content not announced | Grand opening planned for 19 March 2027 | Toho Leo, Panasonic Group |
| Materials from the Ireland pavilion and the ORA food pavilion | Main gate and restaurant (TSP Taiyo) | Announced | Completion date not announced | TSP Taiyo |
| New “null⁴” work by null² | Inside the venue, SATOYAMA Village | Announced | To open with the 19 March 2027 opening | Sustainable Pavilion 2025 |
| null²’s permanent theatre “null²ⁿ” | Yokohama Landmark Tower (outside the venue) | Tickets on sale | Grand opening planned for 14 October 2026 | Sustainable Pavilion 2025 |
| Part of the Italy Pavilion’s architecture and exhibits | GREEN×EXPO 2027 Italy Pavilion | Official participation agreement signed; which elements not announced | Expected 2027 opening | GREEN×EXPO Association |
Grand Ring timber and the Nomo no Kuni equipment are being built directly into the Yokohama venue. Materials from Ireland and the ORA pavilion are planned for the main gate and restaurant, places every visitor will pass through. null² is split in two: a new sculpture inside the venue and a separate permanent theatre in Minato Mirai. The Italy Pavilion plans to carry over part of its building and exhibits, but which parts has not been announced as of September 2026.
Staying in Yumeshima and Osaka
| What | Where | Status | Timing | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Ring, northeast section, about 200 metres | Memorial park zone (developed by Osaka City as a park structure) | Yumeshima Phase 2 Area Master Plan Ver. 3.0 adopted 19 June 2026 | Public opening date not set | City of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture |
| (Tentatively named) Expo 2025 Memorial Hall | New building in the memorial park zone | Development details under study in fiscal 2026 | Opening date not set | City of Osaka |
| Forest of Tranquility (about 1,500 trees) | Left in place at the Yumeshima venue | Stewardship body “Forest of Resonance (FoR)” established 12 September 2025 | Ongoing | better Co-Being General Incorporated Association |
Not all of the Grand Ring is being dismantled. About 200 metres on the northeast side will stay as part of a memorial park under Osaka City, alongside a planned (tentatively named) Expo 2025 Memorial Hall. Neither has an opening date as of September 2026. The Forest of Tranquility, planted at the centre of the venue from about 1,500 trees moved from Expo Commemoration Park, Osaka Castle Park and elsewhere, trees that had been due for thinning, is also staying put. Keio University professor Hiroaki Miyata and architect Sou Fujimoto co-lead Forest of Resonance, the body now carrying forward its upkeep and use.
Handed on elsewhere
| What | Where | Status | Timing | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Ring, southwest section, about 350 metres (dismantled parts) | Hanshin Electric Railway’s Denpo and Fuku stations (two hinoki columns) | Acquired for a fee | To be installed when the new station buildings open | Hanshin Electric Railway |
| Same timber | Kochi Prefecture (8 hinoki columns, 23 CLT panels, about 53 cubic metres) | Received free of charge | Handover May to September 2026 | Kochi Prefecture |
| Signature pavilion “Dialogue Theater” | Izumisano Hillside Park, Izumisano City, Osaka Prefecture (entire site relocated) | Relocation formally decided; ginkgo tree already transplanted | Completion planned for 2028 | Dialogue Theater General Incorporated Association |
| A sapling grown from that ginkgo tree | Midorigaoka-cho, Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture | Gifted | 20 June 2026 | Dialogue Theater General Incorporated Association |
| Luxembourg pavilion’s foundation concrete blocks (about 542 tonnes) | Nesta Resort Kobe (landscaping material) | Announced | Planned for after the Expo closed | Semba Corporation |
| Trees used at the venue (felled during redevelopment of a Sakai housing estate) | Senboku Park Hills Takeshirodai, Sakai | Welcome-back event held | 25 March 2026 | Urban Renewal Agency |
The largest of these is the signature pavilion “Dialogue Theater,” produced by film director Naomi Kawase. According to the Dialogue Theater association, it is the only exhibit facility from Expo 2025 moving its entire site, landscaping included. Completion is planned for 2028, and the ginkgo tree that symbolised the pavilion has already been transplanted; one of the saplings grown from it was gifted to Ashiya City on 20 June 2026. Elsewhere, Grand Ring parts have gone into a railway station bench and a prefecture’s monuments, the Luxembourg pavilion’s foundation concrete has gone into a resort’s landscaping, and trees used at the venue have gone back to the housing estate they came from.
Not yet announced
As of September 2026, within the sources this site could confirm, the following have not been announced:
- How KAJIMA TREE’s timber will be worked, what will be on show inside, and a completion date
- The specific exhibits and experiences at Yasashiku Naritai. STUDIO
- Which parts of the Italy Pavilion’s building and exhibits will be carried over from Expo 2025
- Development details and an opening date for the (tentatively named) Expo 2025 Memorial Hall
- How the surplus will be split among individual projects under its three areas of work, and by how much
- Recipients of Grand Ring timber beyond Hanshin Electric Railway and Kochi Prefecture, out of the roughly 4,000 cubic metres the Association plans to transfer
Our take
Laid out like this, Expo 2025’s legacy seems to fall into three patterns. Some things move whole, building or material together, to a new site (KAJIMA TREE in Yokohama, Dialogue Theater in Izumisano). Some stay where they were (part of the Grand Ring, the Forest of Tranquility). And some are broken into pieces sent to different places (Hanshin Electric Railway, Kochi Prefecture, Nesta Resort Kobe). The 1970 Osaka Expo kept a single symbol, the Tower of the Sun, standing whole in Expo Commemoration Park. Expo 2025, we think, chose to spread its legacy across many places rather than keep any one thing intact.
For visitors to the Yokohama Expo, seeing KAJIMA TREE, the Kanagawa Flower Bed, Yasashiku Naritai. STUDIO, or the main gate and restaurant means seeing a real piece of Expo 2025. It helps to remember that this is not the Expo recreated, but a chosen fragment of its building materials and design, we think.
Other examples carried over from Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai are collected on the feature page “From Expo 2025.”