Abstract
The present study investigated the evalua-tions of 17 Japanese forests that were made by 4 certification bodies based on the number and types of items that theyconsidered to be "requiring improvement." Materials were taken from the summaries of the evaluations that each body made publicly available on its web site. In all, the FSC uses 10 Principles and 56 Criteria to make evaluations.Of these, Principle 6 (Environmental impacts) and Principle 7 (Management plan) were cited by all certification bodies as "requiring improvement, " while there were differences in other items. At any rate, all 17 forests received certification, regardless of the number of items "requiring improvement". It was concluded that a common trait of the certification bodies was their educational or instructional evaluations.
