Disaster Prevention Company Begins Construction of New Office Using Tamba Timber in Kobe City Center

Kobosha Co., Ltd. (Location: Kobe, Hyogo; President: Shinichi Tsuji), which designs and constructs fire and disaster prevention equipment, announces that it has begun construction of a new office using Tamba timber. Construction is handled by the FOREST GROUP (Eiken Co., Ltd., Representative: Tatsuo Adachi), which handles everything from forestry to lumbering, processing, construction, and real estate, and is scheduled for completion in October 2026. In recent years, "wooden architecture in urban areas" has been accelerating in the construction field against the backdrop of the trend toward decarbonization. Under these circumstances, there are few moves by companies whose main business is disaster prevention to "dare to choose wooden construction," and this initiative is attracting attention as a new case that crosses forest conservation, disaster prevention, and urban development. The new office is located in Tsutsui-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, and will be built using traditional wooden construction methods. Why a wooden office in the urban area of Kobe? In recent years, as heavy rain and landslides have become more severe, the problem of "unmaintained forests" has been pointed out as one of the causes. For our company, which has disaster prevention at the core of its business, choosing a wooden office building is a declaration of intent to expand the entrance of disaster prevention from "equipment" to "forests." In addition, consuming timber grown in the Tamba region within the same Hyogo Prefecture economic zone not only reduces transportation costs but also brings ripple effects to forestry, lumbering, construction, and real estate. This model practiced by both companies is an advanced case of regional revitalization that can be sent from Hyogo to the whole country. The biggest purpose of building this new office is to visualize the cycle that urban companies choosing local forests protects mountains, rivers, and cities.