Abstract
The objective of this paper is to examine quantitative and spatial changes in woodland vegetation for the last 40 years in the Kanto region, where has been exposed to the strongest pressure of urban development in Japan. According to the national census of agriculture and forestry from 1960 to 1980, the woodland cover decreased by 4.3 percent (618km2). This decline was significantly correlated with the increase in the human population density mostly on the peri-urban areas. During the same period, many broadleaved woodlands were converted into conifer plantations in the rural areas. The results of the third (1983-86) and fifth (1994-98) national vegetation surveys showed further decrease in the woodland cover, especially in oak and pine woodlands located on topographically flatter lands. In contrast with the 1960s and 1970s, the shift (succession) from coniferous woodlands to broadleaved woodlands seems to have been underway in many areas since the 1980s. This shift is considered to be partly because many conifer plantations have been abandoned, and partly because Pinus densiflora has widely died back.
