JETFUEL – 15 October 2023

• Deforestation: Japan has an interesting and complicated history with deforestation and logging. Post World War II, during the 1950s, extensive swaths of native Japanese beech forests, known as “buna,” were felled to clear the path for rice fields or denser, man-made conifer forests, chosen for their efficiency in supplying lumber for construction purposes. In 1955, Japan’s rate of self-sufficiency– the total lumber produced domestically relative to the total lumber needs of the country– was 94.5%. By the mid 1980s, artificial forests in Japan accounted for 44% of Japan’s total forested area, significantly surpassing the global average of only 3%. However, as lumber needs continued to grow, self sufficiency continued to fall, reaching a low of 20% in 2000. 

• A Case Study in Hokkaido: In order to increase domestic food production in the postwar era, the Japanese government encouraged 45,000 households to migrate to Hokkaido after clear-cutting large swaths of land to create pastures for dairy and crop farms. After farming in hokkaido proved too difficult in the harsh conditions, 71.4% of households returned to the mainland. A nearly equal share of pasture land was abandoned after the old growth forests were clearcut, and the soil became too nutrient depleted to restart forest growth without human intervention. A massive undertaking to reforest the area occurred between 1978 – 2005, but the government focused on planting trees capable of growing and reproducing quickly. As a result, many areas of Hokkaido are artificial conifer forests rather than anything resembling a natural old growth forest.

• Illegal Logging: As costs for lumber harvests in Japan rose and cheaper lumber industries abroad burgeoned, the domestic lumber industry in Japan shrank by roughly 70% between the 1980s and the present. In 2015, several other G7 countries accused Japan of lax regulations that permitted timber that had been illegally logged to enter the country, supporting harmful industries in developing nations. Facing pressure both from international governments and domestic environmental groups, Japan introduced the Clean Wood Act in 2016 to more directly regulate the lumber industry. However, in 2019 the Japanese government once again came under fire for a proposed amendment to a related bill, the Act Concerning Utilization of National Forest Land. The changes would allow private businesses to access large areas of nationally owned forests, and the bill provided no stipulations for reseeding forests. A Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan member, Kaori Ishikawa, said at the time that the bill was “extremely risky. [People] have pointed out that bare mountains will be left in the end.” Other party members noted that “reforestation involves not only planting trees but removing weeds and thinning the forests.”