Abstract
Under the influence of municipal mergers during the Heisei era, wide-area mergers of forest owners’cooperatives progressed in Japan. However, regional differences were observed, and while multiple complex factors are presumed to have influenced these mergers, their actual mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. This study aims to clarify the factors affecting merger decision-making through a case study of the Kichu Forest Owners’Cooperative in Wakayama Prefecture. An analytical framework was developed focusing on five categories: resource-related factors (forest area owned by members, timber production), financial factors (financial conditions), strategic management factors (forest management policies, inter-cooperative relationships, resistance to wide-area mergers), internal procedural factors (decision-making structure, particularly the adequacy of time for internal discussions), and external factors (involvement of local governments and a prefectural federation of forest owners’cooperatives). The results revealed that forest owners’cooperatives agreeing to merge commonly identified timber production and financial conditions as the most important factors. In contrast, cooperatives that rejected the merger were strongly influenced by resistance to wide-area mergers, a desire to maintain existing forest management policies, and insufficient time for internal deliberation within the cooperative.
