Timber officials in the Okhotsk area in Hokkaido are setting their sights on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics main stadium after Kengo Kuma's design featuring rich use of wooden materials was selected for the project.

The new National Stadium is expected to incorporate wood in the roof and pillars using products from wooded areas independently certified for responsible conservation and sustainable management.

The Okhotsk area in the eastern part of Hokkaido facing the Sea of Okhotsk is home to around 40 percent of such certified wooded areas in Japan, with a total 1.67 million hectares as of December. Japanese larch and Sakhalin fir are grown there.