Abstract
The 2012Forest Management Plan Policy was to facilitate efficient and sustainable forest management and timber supply via areal unity. However, owing to obstacles to forest management planning from development requirements, progress in planning was slow. Accordingly, the policy was updated in 2014: a new zonal approach was taken that accommodated development requirements. The aim of this new zonal approach to planning is to relax requirements to expedite land-use planning and establish a basis for consolidation. This paper identified the impact of the new policy on the formulation of management planning via case studies of three motivated logging enterprises’participation potential and the significance of their entry. Participation requirements for logging enterprises in the new plan include（1）high administrative capabilities through employment of persons experienced in planning,（2）good local reputation and trustworthiness as a material producer, and（3）ability to work harmoniously with forest owners’associations on forest ownership. We also found that the significance of logging enterprises’participation varied with region, particularly regarding their role of filling vacant lots that forest owners’associations could not plan for.
