Abstract
The following information was obtained through an investigation of lumber retailers in Ushiku City and Kukizaki Town, Ibaraki, which are on the outer edge of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The largest suppliers of lumber for these retailers are two local wholesalers. Little lumber is purchased from distant sawmills or wholesalers. The majority of customers are builders located within 20km of the respective retailer. As previously mentioned, the lumber retailers in these towns neither purchase from nor serve a wide hinterland, but rather focus solely on the local area. Some of the retailers started dealing in kiln-dried lumber in the early 1990s, but this was still not widespread up to the early 2000s. Some retailers also started dealing in glued-laminated timber in the mid 1990s, but this was still relatively rare in the early 2000s. The retailers often offer "machinery pre-cut" processing, which is usually contracted out. Most of the retailers think that sales in the future are likely to decrease, and are seeking to maintain sales by expanding their businesses to include services such as kiln drying and pre-cutting.
