Efforts are being made to increase the number of timber frame homes built in Japan.
Tokyo-based BL Corporation, which imports wood from North America for use in timber frame homes, wants to promote the construction method across the country where it is still largely unknown.
BL is one of the founding members of the Association of Timber Frame Japan, established in 2000 and made up of timber frame homeowners, builders and others.
The company says hardly any metal parts are used in Japanese timber homes, with interlocking joints formed of dovetails and mortises and fixed with wooden nails.
BL mainly uses new timber in its buildings, mostly imported because of Japan’s limited forest resources.
However company director Tamotsu Yamane is hoping to reuse timber from older houses to prevent more trees being felled. He said: “When customers buy a new timber frame home I hope the house will become a future recycling source.”
