TIMBER, LUMBER AND FORESTRY JAPAN

TIMBER AND JAPAN

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Seventy percent of Japan is covered by forests yet it imports 80 percent of its timber. This because much of the timber is in mountainous location and the logging and transportation costs are high. Japan has 7 million hectares of conifer forests with high quality timber that is too expensive to harvest. An estimated 20 percent of Japan's imported timber comes from illegally logged trees. Ten largest timber importers (1989): 1) Japan; 2) China; 3) Sweden; 4) South Korea; 5) Italy; 6) Finland; 7) Austria; 8) Belgium; 9) Norway; 10) Spain.

Kevin Short wrote in the Daily Yomiuri: “Major Japanese timber trees include sugi cryptomeria (Cryptomeria japonica), hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa), sawara cypress (C. pisifera) and karamatsu larch (Laris leptolepis). Of these, the cryptomeria is by far and away the most commonly planted. This is an endemic Japanese species, distributed from northern Honshu south to Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture. Typical natural habitat is in deep muddy soils near the bottom of steep ravines, especially on shaded north-facing slopes. [Source: Kevin Short, Daily Yomiuri, February 28, 2013]

The Japanese timber industry has been dealt a severe blow by falling prices for domestic timber, labor shortages and cheap imports from abroad. Towns that have traditionally relied timber have died. As of 2002, a third of Japan’s forestry workers were over 65. The industry is making an recruit unemployed youths to work for them. Disposable chopsticks and fertilizer made from cedar barks are key to keeping the forestry industry alive.

Forestry in Japan

Japan's forests are regarded as underutilized. This is a bit ironic in that Japan imports 80 percent of its timber. Japanese demand for wood has been a major engine for deforestation in a number of countries, including China, Russia, Indonesia and other countries with tropical rain forests.

Forestry acreage accounts for 24.91 million hectares, or 66.8 percent of Japan's land according to the “The 2010 Census of Agriculture and Forestry”. In September 2010, the Japanese government announced it would designate a 240,000-hectare area of forest the Daisetsu and Hidaka mountain ranges of Hokkaido as a reserve as part of an effort to protect the biodiversity on the island.

Japan’s forest resources, although abundant, have not been well developed to sustain a large lumber industry. Of the 24.5 million hectares of forests, 19.8 million are classified as active forests. Most often forestry is a part-time activity for farmers or small companies. About a third of all forests are owned by the government. Production is highest in Hokkaido and in Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Fukushima, Gifu, Miyazaki, and Kagoshima prefectures. Nearly 33.5 million cubic meters of roundwood were produced in 1986, of which 98 percent was destined for industrial uses. [Source: Library of Congress, 1994 *]

Sugi Plantations

Sugi (Cryptomeria cedars) redwoods and giant sequoias of California. Although not quite as tall and fat as the California trees large specimens can live for over 1,000 years, and reach heights of up to 50 meters and are known for growing straight and true. Redwoods and sugi are related to similar trees found 150 million years ago in the Jurassic Period. Sugi trunks are covered with a brownish, red bark that peels off in vertical strips. Trunks can attain a diameter of two meters or more. The Japanese name sugi is thought to be derived from massugu-ki, or "perfectly straight tree." [Source: Kevin Short, Daily Yomiuri, February 28, 2013]

Sugi are probably the most numerous tree in Japan, covering 12 percent of Japan's land area. This is not the result of nature but rather is the result of a government-backed planting scheme in the 1950s and 60s. During this aggressive post-World War II reforestation program entire mountainsides and watersheds were planted with the trees that are now all the same size and evenly spaced from other trees. After World War II forests of oaks, maples and evergreens were cut down and replanted with Japanese cedars. The trees have produced a lot nice-smelling timber but they have upset natural ecosystems.

Kevin Short wrote in the Daily Yomiuri: Single-species commercial conifer plantations account for 40 percent of the total forested area nationwide. In many prefectures, however, this figure is well over 60 percent; it’s even higher on hills and lower mountainsides surrounding the major cities. In late February and early March, immense clouds of yellow-green sugi pollen dust float down onto the urban areas, like some amorphous monster out of a kaiju science fiction movie. The number of people suffering from sugi pollen allergy is estimated at over 20 million. [Source: Kevin Short, Daily Yomiuri, February 28, 2013]

“Most of these sugi plantations were established in the years following the Pacific War, when demand for lumber for rebuilding the destroyed towns and cities was high. Entire hillsides and even watersheds were stripped bare of their diverse natural broad-leaved forests, and completely replanted in tight rows of sugi. In the Kanto Region, for example, many of the mountains bordering on the western edge of the plain are almost completely covered with these monoculture timber plantations.

“Unfortunately, many of these post-war plantations were subsequently abandoned. Sugi take about 40-50 years to reach harvest size, but during the growth phase the restrictions and taxes on imported timber were relaxed, driving down the price of wood. Hindered by the high labor and energy costs associated with cutting and transporting their sugi, many Japanese foresters found themselves simply unable to compete in the market. Abandoned plantations are an ecological disaster and a blight on the landscape. Spindly trees are packed together in tight formation, and the forest floor is so covered with fallen branches that no undergrowth can survive. Cryptomeria is a truly magnificent tree, and properly thinned and managed sugi plantations form a valuable wildlife habitat of their own. The sheer extent of the plantations, however, has placed Japan’s magnificent natural broad-leaved trees and forest ecosystems in grave danger of extinction. [Source: Kevin Short, Japan News, March 21, 2017]

Sugi Wood

Sugi trees produce aromatic wood favored in the construction of traditional Japanese homes. According to Japanese mythology the sugi was created from the beard hairs of Susano-o, the brother of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. Since ancient times it has been one of Japan’s premier lumber trees. When properly cared for it grows straight and tall and produces beautifully grained wood that is soft and easily worked yet keeps it shape for hundreds of years. [Source: Kevin Short, Daily Yomiuri]

Kevin Short wrote in the Daily Yomiuri: ““The aromatic wood of the cryptomeria is soft and easily worked, perfect for cutting into the straight boards and columns used in building. The Japanese have prized this tree highly since ancient times. According to classic mythology, the great kami deity Susano created the first sugi by plucking hairs from his beard and scattering them over the islands.[Source: Kevin Short, Daily Yomiuri, February 28, 2013]

In recent decades, demand for cedar has dropped as have prices for cedar wood. There is little or no incentive to cut down cedar forests, which occupy great swaths of land. The planting of this single species has created problems for allergy sufferers and is threatening wildlife, reducing the water table and creating the potential for disastrous landslides.

Paper and Japan

Oji Paper is the largest paper maker in Japan followed by Nippon Paper. Other large paper makers include Hokuetsu Paper, Mitsubishi Paper, and Daio Paper

Japanese paper firms are buying up forests in Canada, Brazil and other places to make sure they have sufficient wood chips supplies to meet their demands for paper. One of the world’s largest world wood pulp factories was established in 1993 by Oji Paper and Mitsubishi Corp. two hours from Edmonton to process 650,000 tons of pulp from wood taken from an area about the size of South Korea.

Top 5 paper producers (millions of tons per year): 1) USA (71.5); 2) Japan (28); 3) Canada (16.4); 4) China (13.7); 5) Germany (11.8).

Modern Forestry in Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported: “Tsurui in eastern Hokkaido is known as a breeding place for red-crested white cranes. Recently, the village has been turning heads for another reason--its forestry cooperative has introduced a new method of felling trees that could drastically change the domestic forestry industry. Chain saws are used to cut through trunks in the village's forest, which is full of 50-year-old larch trees. The felled trees are dragged along the snow-covered ground, almost as though they are gliding, by a winch system of a German-made tractor. The trunks are trimmed with a high-performance harvester and stacked. The process looks more like the slick operation of a machine than forestry work. [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, May 4, 2012]

“The government chose Tsurui in fiscal 2010 as the model area to carry out its forest and forestry industry revitalization plan. The village introduced a European-style system after inspecting the advanced forestry industry of Germany and Austria. Conventionally, a straight road through a forest would be constructed first to enable bulldozers to enter deep inside the woods and transport felled trees. This method places a heavy environmental burden on the forest because heavy machines disturb its soft soil. In the new system, a web of roads is formed, like capillary vessels, which follows the contours of the land. This method has helped the Tsurui forestry cooperative reduce costs and transport time.

“Productivity has been improved. The daily transported volume of timber increasing to 11.2 cubic meters per worker. This is nearly four times the two or three cubic meters transported per worker before the village adopted the new method. Production costs dropped to 3,520 yen per cubic meter, less than a half of the previous cost of 8,000 yen to 10,000 yen.

The forest and forestry industry revitalization plan was compiled by the government in 2009. The plan aims to raise the nation's self-sufficiency rate of timber to 50 percent or more by 2020. The plan includes measures to train forestry technicians, reform forestry cooperatives and put national forests to practical use. National forests are expected to play the role of an engine in the revitalization of Japan's forestry industry. Putting national forests to practical use is considered easier than utilizing those owned by the private sector, which often lack clearly defined property lines and consensus among owners.

See Plants and Forests

Problems Forestry in Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported: “many problems must be immediately dealt with. One problem is clear-cutting. This refers to the practice in which all trees in an area are cut down. There have been many cases in which forest owners cut all of their trees without planting new ones, giving up on reforestation. According to the Forestry Agency, there were 13,600 hectares of "non-afforestated areas" throughout the country as of fiscal 2008. However, this land is decreasing due to the introduction of stricter penalties and other enforcement measures.But reforestation has often been abandoned due to the falling price of domestic timber, which is competing against lower-priced imported wood. [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, May 4, 2012]

“At a logging site in Kuma, Kumamoto Prefecture, all the cedars and cypresses on a mountain are being felled. However, Izumi Ringyo, a forestry company in Hitoyoshi of the prefecture, is planting young trees in the logged area at the same time. "The eco-system will be disturbed unless the forest is recycled by planting young trees after clear-cutting," said Tadayoshi Izumi, president of the company.

“Other thorny problems include defoliation, which is increasing in beech tree forests, and overprotected deer that are destroying saplings.

See Nature and Science, Environment, Recycling

Image Sources: 1) Osaka Gas 2) Jun from Goods from Japan 3) Sanyo 4) 5) Wikipedia 6) TEPCO 7) Bank of Japan 8) Greenpeace

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Daily Yomiuri, Times of London, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2025