Transition and future prospects of ergonomic research on forestry work in Japan

Abstract

The objective of this study is to elevate the ideal methods and issues for ergonomic research on forestry work in the future by organizing the transition of the literature, thus far while investigating the ergonomic research on forestry works in Japan. This study focuses on the literature and examines its transition from the middle of the Taisho era to the present day. The result indicates that many studies were previously conducted on “labor burden evaluation,” “safety equipment for machinery/equipment,” and “improvement of evaluation of machinery/equipment.” In recent years, however, the focus shifted to “safety education/training/skill improvement.” The findings point to a tendency to highlight worker development as a research theme. Based on these results, the study classifies the ergonomic researches into occupational accident prevention, occupational safety and health/health management of workers, construction of labor organizations/systems, and construction of educational organizations/systems. Lastly, the study presents issues that needs to be addressed in the future.