National Stadium Tokyo Wood Building, Tropical Forest Timber at Japanese 2020 Arena, News
New National Stadium Tokyo Timber
Tropical Forest Plywood at Sports Arena Building in Japan by Kengo Kuma Architect
20 May 2017
Tropical Forest Timber at New National Stadium Tokyo
Plywood at site of new Tokyo Olympic Stadium
Design: Kengo Kuma & Associates
Forest logging company: Shin Yang, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia
Urgent investigation required as use of plywood likely linked to tropical forest destruction and human rights abuses found at construction site of new Tokyo Olympic Stadium.
Ironically the building uses a lot of wood so it can fit into the wooden context, but thereby destroying woods in Borneo, in what appears to be an unssustainable way. Citing a significant breach of the commitment to a sustainable 2020 Olympics, Japanese and international environmental groups recently called for an urgent independent investigation of the use of tropical formwork plywood that appears to originate from the notorious Malaysian logging company, Shin Yang, in the construction of the new National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo Olympic organizers have been repeatedly informed about the high risk of using illegal and unsustainable timber for Olympic construction.[1]
In December 2016, just days before construction started on the new Olympic Stadium, over 40 environment groups delivered a letter to the IOC warning that efforts by the Tokyo ...