Abstract
By 2024, thirty-seven prefectures had introduced local forest environment taxes, primarily to raise revenue for forest- and forestry-related projects. However, limited research has investigated the fiscal structures of forest and forestry policy following the introduction of these taxes. This study examines trends from FY2001 to FY2010 in forestry expenditures, their detailed budgetary categories (referred to as moku), and funding sources in four Tohoku prefectures: two taxing prefectures (Iwate and Fukushima) and two non-taxing prefectures (Aomori and Miyagi), which are geographically close to one another. Among the 37 prefectures that introduced these local forest environment taxes, Iwate and Fukushima imposed relatively high tax rates. From FY2006, when Iwate and Fukushima introduced the tax, differences in trends in both forestry expenditures and the allocation of general revenue resources were observed between the taxing and non-taxing prefectures. These differences appeared to primarily stem from the budgetary categories related to forestry public corporations and their associated projects. From FY2008, the taxing prefectures increased their allocation of general revenue resources to forestry expenditures compared with the non-taxing prefectures. However, this increase was concentrated in categories related to forestry public corporations, with little or no increase observed in categories associated with tax-funded or other forestry projects.
