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Expo 2025 Osaka, One Year On: What Went to GREEN×EXPO 2027 and What Stayed

Prices, times and dates in this article follow official announcements as of 19 September 2026. Check the official sites right before you book.

Chart of where the Expo 2025 legacy went: a bold arrow from Yumeshima to Yokohama, and dots at Fuku Station, Kochi, Chihayaakasaka, Izumisano, Awaji, Keihanna, Miki, Fukuyama and Kyoto, with a 14-item list (five to the Yokohama Expo, one staying at Yumeshima, eight elsewhere; counted by what stood at the Expo, so fewer items than the tables below, which split by destination)
Where the Expo 2025 legacy went, as of September 2026. The list counts by what stood at the Expo; the tables below split by destination Chart: trip-jp.com editorial board (CC BY 4.0: reuse and adapt with credit to trip-jp.com). Map: Natural Earth

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

WhatWhereStatusTimingSource
Grand Ring timberKAJIMA TREE (Kajima Corporation)Main construction under way; processing method now known, exhibit content not announcedGroundbreaking ceremony 1 June 2026; completion planned end of February 2027GREEN×EXPO Association, Kajima Corporation
Grand Ring timberKanagawa Flower Bed (Kanagawa Prefecture)AnnouncedTo 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 announcedGrand opening planned for 19 March 2027Toho Leo, Panasonic Group
Materials from the Ireland pavilion and the ORA food pavilionMain gate and restaurant (TSP Taiyo)AnnouncedCompletion date not announcedTSP Taiyo
New “null⁴” work by null²Inside the venue, SATOYAMA VillageAnnouncedTo open with the 19 March 2027 openingSustainable Pavilion 2025
null²’s permanent theatre “null²ⁿ”Yokohama Landmark Tower (outside the venue)Tickets on saleGrand opening planned for 14 October 2026 (opening not confirmed as of 19 October 2026)Sustainable Pavilion 2025
Part of the Italy Pavilion’s architecture and exhibitsGREEN×EXPO 2027 Italy PavilionOfficial participation agreement signed; rooftop garden reused from the Expo 2025 Italy Pavilion (the building itself is a new design)Expected 2027 openingGREEN×EXPO Association, Italy Trade Promotion Section

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.

Rendering of Yasashiku Naritai. STUDIO: a gate of wavy, tangled silver pipes covered in green vines, with people seated before a stage beneath it and a food truck on the right
Rendering of Yasashiku Naritai. STUDIO, which will use the facade and equipment of Panasonic's Nomo no KuniToho Leo press release, 25 May 2026 (via PR TIMES)

The Italy Pavilion’s design reuses and renovates the rooftop garden from its Expo 2025 pavilion. The building itself is a new design: the Association’s standard “GX House” wrapped in an oval, timber “second skin,” a modern reinterpretation of haystacks. This came to light through a 19 August 2026 document published by Italy’s Trade Promotion Section. What specific exhibits will fill it has not been announced as of September 2026.

Staying in Yumeshima and Osaka

The Grand Ring's timber structure lit up at night, illuminated wooden beams stretching into the distance
The Grand Ring lit up at night (photographed 31 August 2025)Photo: 掬茶 (CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
WhatWhereStatusTimingSource
Grand Ring, northeast section, about 200 metresMemorial park zone (developed by Osaka City as a park structure)Yumeshima Phase 2 Area Master Plan Ver. 3.0 adopted 19 June 2026Public opening date not setCity of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture
(Tentatively named) Expo 2025 Memorial HallNew building in the memorial park zoneDevelopment details under study in fiscal 2026Opening date not setCity of Osaka
Forest of Tranquility (about 1,500 trees)Left in place at the Yumeshima venueStewardship body “Forest of Resonance (FoR)” established 12 September 2025Ongoingbetter 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.

A paved path inside the Forest of Tranquility, curving between trees, with tall grasses on both sides and slender trees whose leaves are starting to turn yellow
The Forest of Tranquility two weeks before the Expo closed (photo taken 30 September 2025)Photo: 《Writer Setagaya》 (CC0, Wikimedia Commons)

Handed on elsewhere

WhatWhereStatusTimingSource
Grand Ring, southwest section, about 350 metres (dismantled parts)Hanshin Electric Railway’s Denpo and Fuku stations (two hinoki columns, to be made into waiting benches)Acquired for a feeTo be installed when the new station buildings openHanshin Electric Railway
Same timberKochi Prefecture (8 hinoki columns, 23 CLT panels, about 53 cubic metres)Received free of charge; to be made into monuments and furnishingsHandover May to September 2026Kochi Prefecture
Signature pavilion “Dialogue Theater”Izumisano Hillside Park, Izumisano City, Osaka Prefecture (entire site relocated)Relocation formally decided; ginkgo tree already transplantedCompletion planned for 2028Dialogue Theater General Incorporated Association
A sapling grown from that ginkgo treeMidorigaoka-cho, Ashiya City, Hyogo PrefectureGifted20 June 2026Dialogue Theater General Incorporated Association
Life-size Gundam statueIzumisano City, Osaka Prefecture (site not stated in the budget papers)The city set aside 800 million yen in its fiscal 2026 budgetTiming not announcedIzumisano City
Luxembourg pavilion’s foundation concrete blocks (about 542 tonnes)Nesta Resort Kobe (landscaping material)AnnouncedPlanned for after the Expo closedSemba Corporation
Trees used at the venue (felled during redevelopment of a Sakai housing estate)Senboku Park Hills Takeshirodai, SakaiWelcome-back event held25 March 2026Urban Renewal Agency
The Netherlands Pavilion building, “A New Dawn”Awaji Yumebutai Sustainable Park, Awaji City, Hyogo PrefecturePasona Group signed a transfer agreement (announced 29 June 2026)Opening date not stated in the announcementPasona Group
Seven androids from the “Future of Life” pavilionKeihanna Open Innovation Center (Seika and Kizugawa, Kyoto Prefecture)Given free of charge to Kyoto Prefecture; first shown on 21 and 22 February 2026Later viewing dates not announcedKyoto Prefecture
Membrane roof and “Tree of Creation” from the Jellyfish PavilionOutdoor area of Fukuyama City’s planned children’s museum, Hiroshima PrefectureThe city is working toward relocationThe museum aims to open during fiscal 2029Fukuyama City
Exhibits and materials from the Sumitomo PavilionSen-oku Hakukokan Museum (Sakyo Ward, Kyoto)Display ended 18 October 2026First period 21 April to 31 July 2026; second period 5 September to 18 October 2026Sen-oku Hakukokan Museum
Two Myaku-Myaku monuments“Irasshai” in front of Fuku Station (Nishiyodogawa Ward, Osaka); “Waku Waku” at Chihaya Enchi in the Fumin no Mori forest park (Chihayaakasaka Village)In placeFuku Station 4 September to 30 November 2026; Chihaya Enchi 19 September to 23 November 2026 (planned)Nishiyodogawa Ward of Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture

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:

  • What will be on show inside KAJIMA TREE and when it will open to visitors
  • The specific exhibits and experiences at Yasashiku Naritai. STUDIO
  • The specific exhibits inside the Italy Pavilion
  • 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

Other examples carried over from Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai are collected on the feature page “From Expo 2025.”

Correction (19 September 2026): we had said the elements the Italy Pavilion would carry over were unannounced; in fact, the reuse of its rooftop garden from Expo 2025 was already public in a 19 August 2026 document from Italy’s Trade Promotion Section.

Correction (19 September 2026): we had given KAJIMA TREE’s groundbreaking as 9 June 2026; the groundbreaking ceremony was held on 1 June, and 9 June was Kajima Corporation’s announcement date.

Correction (19 October 2026): in “Handed on elsewhere,” we had listed the Sumitomo Pavilion display at Sen-oku Hakukokan Museum as “On display”; its second period ran to 18 October 2026 and has ended.

Correction (19 October 2026): in “Coming to the Yokohama Expo,” we had given null²ⁿ a grand opening planned for 14 October 2026; that date has passed, and this site has not confirmed the opening.

FAQ

How will the Expo's operating surplus be used?

According to a report compiled by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on 16 June 2026, the surplus will be divided equally among three areas of work, namely expanding the connections the Expo created, deepening the creative activity it sparked, and carrying forward the "memory of place" in Yumeshima. An annex to the report says the Yumeshima share will pay for, among other things, the initial repair of the Grand Ring and its upkeep for about 20 years. Specific uses are to be decided by a council of local governments and business for the Osaka-Kansai share, and by the ministry working with JETRO and others for the national and global share. Amounts per project had not been announced as of September 2026.

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