Forestry and the Forest Industry in Japan

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Anyone traveling by car through the Japanese countryside is likely to
see massive clear-cuts of timber stands. Wood was the primary fuel in
Japan until the 1950s, and it is the traditional building material for
temples, shrines, and houses. Wood is also well suited to Japan’s
humid summer climate. By the late 1950s, high timber prices encouraged
the planting of timber stands for investment.

This study, written by 15 contributors, is divided into three parts:
forest policy in Japan, historical and current; product industries; and
new trends in Japanese forestry. The topics include silviculture, forest
owners’ associations, national forest management, planning and
policies, logging, the sawmill industry, the home-building industry, and
the pulp and paper industry.

Three chapters grouped under “New Trends for Forestry in Japan”
address depopulation and village revival, new relations between forests
and urban dwellers, and the survival of wildlife in modern Japan. The
latter is of stronger interest since the Environmental Agency was
established in 1971. Modern Japan has wildlife protection movements, and
public concern for biological diversity and the conservation of forests
is increasing slowly. The latter is encouraged by international pressure
to promote the conservation of species, but even with such efforts, the
Japanese crested ibis and the Asian black bear are nearly extinct.

Forestry and the Forest Industry in Japan is a scholarly study on a
topic of vital importance.