Tree Care in Tokyo
Tree risk assessment in Tokyo
Is this tree safe? An answer based on what can be seen and measured, with a written report in English.
Who it is for
Homeowners worried about a large tree near the house, international schools and embassies with trees over paths and playgrounds, hotels and facility managers who need a record for their trees, and anyone checking trees after a typhoon.
How I assess a tree
- Visual inspection of the roots, trunk and crown: cracks, cavities, fungi, dead wood, lean and the site around the tree. How decay is read without instruments.
- Sounding and probing to locate areas that may be hollow or decayed.
- Measurement, where it is needed: a resistograph (IML-RESI PowerDrill) records the wood’s resistance along a fine needle, and sonic tomography (PiCUS, ArborSonic 3D) maps how sound waves travel through the trunk. How a resistograph works · How sonic tomography works.
- Aerial inspection by climbing on ropes, for forks and upper limbs that cannot be judged from the ground. An example at a Tokyo temple.
Instruments are used only where they answer a real question; many trees can be judged without them.
What you receive
A written report in English with photos: what was found, how serious it is, and what to do — prune, monitor, brace, or remove — with a suggested timing. For organisations, trees can be numbered and recorded so they can be checked again in later years.