Abstract
Although hardwoods have not been the mainstream of Japanese forestry in the modern era and have been of little interest to those involved in the forestry, their utilization as a wood resource has risen to prominence in recent years. This report attempts to summarize industry journals and publicly available administrative documents for the purpose of understanding how the debate on hardwoods has changed over time in the past half-century. It was considered that recent discussions on hardwood resource utilization, while focusing on the price evaluation of hardwood materials, lacked recognition and reference to the sustainable management of the resource and its technical feasibility. Future discussion
and promotion of hardwood resource utilization needs to be more thoughtful based on the principle of sustainable resource management.
