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9.16Tue 2025

Managing the Wood Supply Chain in Light of the Rice Riots and Wood Shock

From 2024 to 2025, a rice shortage will occur and rice prices will soar nationwide, causing the so-called "2024 rice riots" [...].

9.13Sat 2025

Keio Electric Railway wins Grand Prix in Forest x ACT Challenge 2025 for its cyclical efforts to link cities and forests

Keio Electric Railway won the Grand Prix (Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries [...]) in the forest development category of the Forest x ACT Challenge 2025 organized by the Forestry Agency.

9.12Fri 2025

The "Japanese Spirit and Western Genius" I felt in the Meiji Shrine Forest: Reading Yukikazu Murao's "Forestry: German Forests and Japanese Forestry" (Part 2)

*Previously, three forest philosophies were formed under the influence of regional characteristics in Germany Read "Forestry: German Forests and Japanese Forestry" by Yukikazu Murao (in Japanese) [...

Newsletter Registration] Connecting policy, industry, technology, and culture, we deliver ideas for a recycling-oriented society every week.

The Newsletter (free registration) provides a weekly selection of expert knowledge and the latest case studies from our website. We provide a wide range of decision-making support to those at the forefront of institutional design, business evaluation, research theme identification, and funding.

9.11Thu 2025

How to Create the Future Beyond the Walls of the Law Purpose and Courage Change Society

Every day we live under a variety of laws and regulations. At first glance, these rules restrict our behavior and present us with new challenges [...].

9.9Tue 2025

Japan's forest resources continue to increase due to postwar afforestation.

As noted in my column of May 9, the prewar period forests were in a very different situation from that of today. According to the "Accumulated Statistics on Forest Area since Meiji Era (Forest [...]".

9.5Fri 2025

Learning from Totsukawa "Village in the Sky," an outdoor experience to protect the forest and nurture the community "Playground for Adults" delivered by a French entrepreneur

Japan has abundant forest resources, but forest management [...] such as the problem of neglected Satoyama forests (*1) and the decrease in the number of forestry workers (*2).

9.5Fri 2025

TENOHA TATESHINA Lab.", a new tourism base in Tateshina, where visitors can learn about forest cycles through "specimens, fragrance, and color" of highland plants.

TENOHA TATESH, a forest material laboratory, is a hands-on facility utilizing plants native to Tateshina, Nagano Prefecture, at an altitude of 1,300 meters [...].

9.3Wed 2025

Noto's satoyama and satoumi, supported by the ate forestry industry, also takes on the challenge of restoration utilizing forestry heritage and World Agricultural Heritage sites.

The Noto region of Ishikawa Prefecture experienced unprecedented combined disasters in the history of the prefecture: the Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year's Day, 2024, and the Okunoto torrential rains in September. The disaster area [...].

9.3Wed 2025

Shelter and Toda Corporation Develop Hybrid Wood Fire-Resistant "COOL WOOD-ST" Pillar Obtains 60- and 90-minute Ministerial Approval, Encouraging the Spread of Mid- and High-Rise Wood Construction

Shelter and Toda Corporation have developed COO [...], a hybrid wood fire-resistant component that uses reinforced gypsum board and wood as fire-resistant covering material for steel pipe columns.

9.2Tue 2025

The Conceptual Power to Connect Forests and Cities: A New Form of Construction Born of Resource Recycling

Can trees change the shape of cities? As a general construction company, we are seriously tackling such a question from the standpoint of [...].

9.2Tue 2025

CGC of the University of Tokyo launches "Nature on the Balance Sheet," an industry-academia collaborative project to reflect natural capital in corporate accounting. 4 companies including Oji HD and Sumitomo Forestry participate in the project.

The University of Tokyo's Global Commons Center (CGC) recently launched the CGC-NBS Sponsorship Project, an industry-academia [...]

8.29Fri 2025

A Sustainable Model Learned in Austrian Villages for Spreading Heat Energy in Mountain Villages [Heat Supply Business as a Basis for Local Economic Circulation 1: Overview].

Have you ever felt uncomfortable with the use of fossil fuels as a matter of course? Nowadays, electricity and heat energy are generated by coal and [...].

8.28Thu 2025

New Foundation Launched to Nurture and Support "Nature Planners," Entrepreneurs Connecting Natural Capital and the Economy

The "Nature Planner Foundation" fosters and supports "nature planners," entrepreneurial human resources who create new value together with nature [...].

8.28Thu 2025

Nagano-based Watahan Building Materials acquires 1,500 hectares of forestland to create a "logging, using, planting, and growing" recycling model

Watahan Kenzai Corporation, a general wood construction materials manufacturer, acquired approximately 1,500 hectares of forestland in Sendai, Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, from the Noike Airin Agricultural Cooperative Association in August [...].

8.28Thu 2025

Three Forest Ideas Formed by the Influence of Germany's Regional Characteristics: Reading Yukikazu Murao's "Forestry: German Forests and Japanese Forestry" (Part 2)

*Part 1 is hereThe challenges faced by the "Hozoku" forestry philosophy, which was born in 18th century Germany, a country where forests were overgrown, are described in Yukikazu Murao's "Forestry: German Forest [...]

8.27Wed 2025

Carbon-Neutral Salt Production with Wood Biomass Power Generation Nihonkaisui to Start Operations at Sanuki Plant in FY2028

A plan to convert an existing coal-fired power plant to a wood biomass power plant at the Nihonkaisui Sanuki Plant (Sakaide City, Kagawa Prefecture) has been approved by the [...]

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