Updated by "Forest Circular Economy" Editorial Board on April 11, 2025, 10:14 AM JST
Editorial Board, Forest Circular Economy
Forestcircularity-editor
We aim to realize "Vision 2050: Japan Shines, Forest Circular Economy" promoted by the Platinum Forest Industry Initiative. We will disseminate ideas and initiatives to promote biomass chemistry, realize wooden cities, and encourage innovation in the forestry industry in order to fully utilize forest resources to decarbonize, strengthen economic security, and create local communities.
On April 10, Haseko Corporation launched a tender offer (TOB) for common shares of Wood Friends, a company engaged in housing and wood-related businesses. Haseko will make Wood Friends its wholly owned subsidiary to add value to its housing business and to secure a new growth area with an eye to utilizing wood resources.
Wood Friends has its own lumber mill and has built a system that actively utilizes JAS structural timber and local timber in design, processing, and construction. In particular, the company is actively engaged in efficient home construction using pre-cut structural timber, utilization of forest residues, and forest-derived carbon fixation. The company has created a sustainable forest resource cycle of "cut, use, plant, and grow," and a structure in which city dwellers are indirectly involved in reforestation through their residences, and has a high affinity with carbon credits and the forest service industry.
Haseko has built a track record in the construction of RC condominiums, but the company is now in a phase where it is required to shift to sustainable construction, such as net zero energy buildings (ZEB) and decarbonized housing complexes. The TOB is not simply an expansion of the housing line, but a reorganization of the business structure with an eye to everything from materials procurement to environmental strategies.
The background of this project is the structural challenges facing the domestic forestry industry and the decarbonization and sustainability responses required of the building industry.
Plantation forests (cedar, cypress, etc.), which account for about 40% of Japan's forests, have been planted for more than 50 years since the end of World War II, and are now entering a period of full-scale harvesting and utilization. However, in many cases, the resources are left unutilized due to the high cost of removal, lack of support, inefficient distribution, and other factors.
Meanwhile, the building industry is accelerating its shift from conventional urban development that relies on concrete and steel frames to low-carbon buildings and medium- and large-scale wooden buildings that utilize wood. This trend is in line with the international trend toward a decarbonized society, and in Japan, the "Law for the Promotion of the Use of Wood in Public Buildings" and other measures are providing institutional support.
Under these circumstances, companies such as Woodfriends, which position lumber as infrastructure for housing supply and connect upstream (forestry) to downstream (housing supply), are going beyond being mere local housing manufacturers and are taking on the role of a "hub to make lumber resources function in urban areas.
In order to guarantee a stable supply of lumber in urban areas, it is important to have a system in which housing operators are responsible for lumber distribution and even processing. For forestry businesses, stabilization of the urban housing market will also lead to the creation of important partnerships that will create a cycle of high value-added materials and reinvestment.
