Japan's forest resources continue to grow due to postwar afforestation; strengthening the competitiveness of domestic timber to correct the "under harvesting" gap
Updated by Hiroshi Kuboyama on September 09, 2025, 4:33 PM JST
Hirofumi KUBOYAMA
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, National Forestry Research and Development Institute
D. from the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Tokyo University in 2009. He then engaged in research on expanding the use of woody biomass for energy, and was seconded to the Council for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Office in 2011, and has been in his current position since 2024. He specializes in forestry economics. He is a member of the Expert Committee for the Promotion of Biomass Utilization of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and chairman of a study group for the growth industry of forestry and woody biomass power generation. His many publications include "Forest Future Conference: Creating a Mechanism to Utilize Forests" (Tsukiji Shokan) and "Wood Science Course 10: Biomass" (Kaiseisha).
May 9 columnAs noted in the "Forestry and Forestry Economics Research Institute," the situation of forestry in the prewar period was quite different from that of today. According to "Accumulated Statistics on Forest Area since Meiji Era (Forestry Economic Research Institute)," the total forest area in 1913 was 21.09 million ha, 4 million ha less than the 25.1 million ha in 2020. This difference is thought to be due to fields and grass pastures that later became forests through afforestation and natural renewal. On the other hand, a breakdown of forested areas shows that there are indeed 2.22 million hectares of wilderness, suggesting overuse or inadequate management of forests at that time.
In the prewar period, lumber use consisted mainly of softwoods1 versus hardwoods2 for firewood and coal. In the postwar period, the energy revolution led to a sharp decline in the use of wood for fuelwood and coal, while reconstruction demand led to a rapid increase in the production of lumber. In any case, the production of materials continued at around 50 million cubic meters per year until around 1970 in the absence of sufficient forest accumulation, and it would not have been easy to restore the devastated forests.
In response, afforestation projects were vigorously promoted after World War II to increase the supply of timber and restore the multifaceted functions of forests, resulting in the creation of today's planted forest resources of more than 10 million hectares. According to the Forestry Agency's Forest Resource Inventory, the forest stock in 1966 was 1.9 billion cubic meters, but this had almost doubled to 3.5 billion cubic meters by 1995 (Fig. 1), thanks to the steady growth of planted trees. This seemed to herald the coming of the era of domestic timber production, but due to the strong yen, which lowered the price of foreign timber, increased labor costs, and the insufficient size of planted trees, domestic timber lost its competitiveness, and material production declined to less than 17 million cubic meters.
While logging volume has been decreasing, planted forests have been growing vigorously and have recently finally grown to a size suitable for use. As a result, the amount of material production, including burning timber, has recovered to 34.59 million cubic meters in 2022, but this is still an underestimate of the high growth of forest resources. This is because the Forestry Agency's "Basic Survey on Forest Ecosystem Diversity," which uses scientific methods to estimate resource status, indicates that the total forest stock is more than 8.2 billion cubic meters, and that it is growing at an average annual rate of 150 million cubic meters.
According to the Forest and Forestry Statistics Handbook, the total forest harvested timber volume in 2022 was 51.36 million cubic meters, so the total forest growth would have been about 200 million cubic meters. This means that Japan's harvest utilization rate is only 26% (Table 1). On the other hand, the logging utilization rate in European forestry countries is over 70%, which confirms that active forestry is developing, but conversely indicates that there is not much room for increased logging. This may be a reason why Europe is becoming more cautious about further expanding the use of woody biomass energy.
Japan still relies on imports for more than 60% of its lumber demand as a result of under-logging, and illegal logging has been reported in some of its import partner countries, raising concerns about the deterioration of forests. In response, it will be necessary to expand the supply and demand of materials and increase the self-sufficiency ratio by increasing the competitiveness of domestic timber. Even if the amount of logging is raised to twice the current level, the amount of forest stock is expected to continue to increase sufficiently, so it is important to demonstrate the carbon sequestration effect of forests as well as the global warming prevention effect of wood use. (Hirofumi Kuboyama, Director for Coordination of Industry-Academia-Government-Private Sector Collaboration, Tohoku Branch, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, National Institute of Forestry Research and Development)
