Concerns undertaking large-scale forest management and logging industry [Japan].
1990
Narita M. | Sunasaka M.
The structure of the logging industry in Japan is diverse and is determined, on the one hand, by the present state of the forest resource and forest ownership and the wood industry and timber market on the other. The structure of the logging industry may be classified in relation to the structure of the forest. The logging industry in this region is hierarchical consisting of concerns undertaking large-scale forest management, small logging companies and non-industrial producers. To illustrate this logging structure this paper describes the logging companies that supply the saw mill industry located in a large private forest which occupies a dominant position in the region chosen for study. Also the paper describes the character of timber market since 1980. The logging companies of Iitaka, a town in Mie Prefecture, were investigated. Concerns undertaking large-scale forest management are capitalized businesses which produce the highest quality logs and logs of special sizes from their own man-made forests. The are able to sell such logs at prices far higher than the average at the timber auctions. Many of the small logging companies purchase stumpage from small forest owners. Most of these forest owners established man-made forests during the Showa period. Most of the logs produced by these small companies are only of average quality and the prices are far lower because of the young age of the trees from which the logs are produced. Non-industrial log producers are small in scale and have emerged to undertake the thinning of man-made forests. Such activity increased markedly after the establishment of a thinning log auction market in Iitaka by the Forest Association. These small producers purchase young standing trees of about 15 or 25 years from both large and small forest owners and carry out thinning using family labour.
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