Since the 1990s, the forest administration has made a radical shift in its focus from economic growth to environmental issues. While the practive of forestry requires a constant adjustment to the globalization, the forest administration is currently facing a series of problems. (1) The forest administration has not fully overcome the enormous confusion that followed the worldwide shift in resources from the natural forests to the artificial plantation and the "regenerated second growth". (2) As a result of the decades of dealing with the expansion of domestic demand, the forestry and wood industry are yet to establish the "net formation of the opposite regionalization". (3) The forest administration is in short of a consistent survey (and lack of manpower, for that matter) on the intricate relationship between the forest farmers and the employed workers. Thus, the innovation policy is being lost in direction at many different levels. (4) The role of the forest administration is still unclear in the context of regional policy. Especially, the life condition of local mountain villages has deteriorated through years, due to a persistent poverty. With an increasing number of aspiring workers and tourists from urban areas, however, there is a clear indication of "interactivity", which the administration is expected to take for granted, in the hope of future benefit for mountain villages. In the course of globalization, the policy making for the forestry has gradually deemphasized the "hierarchical governance" of the forest administration. There is an urgent need for a critical assessment of the economic dependence on the forestry in the local areas and its social and cultural consequences, in addition to attempts to involve local communities and private sectors on a daily basis to provide more innovative approaches to sustainable forestry development.

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This study is to review the timber production and distribution policies since the 1990's and to examine these issues and perspectives for the new stage. Due to the globalization of world economy and liberalization of timber trade, the importance of Japanese forestry in the national economy has been declining and the forest policy to the 1980's which forced on restructuring the forestry industry through modernization lost its rationale. On the other hand, there is an increasing importance of forest practice policies to cope with the global warming. However, the timber production and distribution policies still aim at modernization of the industry. This is because the forest practice policy and the timber production policy have been separately developed after the new Forest and forestry basic law (enforced in 2001), which used to be integrated into one system under the River basin management system (enforced in 1991). One of the problems of such policy change is that large integration of forestry and timber industry may be acccompanied with risk of large failure, which is not appropriate for the rural society and forest management. The timber production and distribution policies need to be placed under the same policy system that aims at sustainable forest management.

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This paper discusses some measures for assisting forest owners, forest workers and forestry enterpises with the maintenance of manmade forests, and aims to clarify the results of and issues with measures that have been taken since the 1990s. The circumstances of the forestry changed remarkably in the 1990s. In response, the government developed measures to deal with the changing situation, especially regarding the following two points: 1) makeing it easier for forest owners to commission work to forestry enterprises, and 2) improving the working and hiring conditions of forest workers. These measures are significant in that they have provided job security in some rural areas. However, the problems that the forestry and rural areas face are structural and thus are difficult to solve merely by implementing measures in the forestry sector. The Forest Economy Socjety will have to provide descriptions and explanations about the conditions of forestry and rural communities, in order to help the general public to become aware of these problems.

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For this paper, I evaluated the interaction of cities and countryside through agricultural and forestry policies since the 1990's, then discussed courses of action. Three themes were dominant in the early 1990's: change from "private-sector-led large scale resort development" to bureaucrat-led "farm resort" or "green tourism"; change from "comprehensive use of forests" to "popular-participation-type reforestation"; and volunteer reforestation activites-both top-down and bottom-up. In the late 1990's, amid the policy shift from the "Agricultural Basic Law" and "Forestry Basic Law" to the "Basic Law on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas" and "Basic Law on Forests and Forestry", the interaction of cities and the countryside becomes a pillar of local revitalization policies. Since 2002, it has been the government's economic revitalization policy and was transformed into a mammoth project conducted through cooperation of eight governmental departments. Chages in interaction between cities and the countryside reflect the national policy of rationalizing domestic agriculture and forestry, due to globalization and trade liberalization. Meanwhile, civic activities for food safety and bountiful forests are working with the countryside, which has found in them a means of survival.

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A case study project with a three target level approach focusing on participation and capability development of farmer groups was analyzed by a structured questionnaire interview. 132 group members and 23 local residents that didn't participate in group activities were interviewed. Social and technicak capabilities were well developed as two components of the group activities, and well-learnt and maintained, mainly at group and individual levels for one year after projecy termination. On the other hand, financial capability wasn't developed sufficiently. Lessons learnt through this study are as follow: (1) useful to break into three capabilities for concrete evaluation, (2) helpful to use a three target level approach, (3) limit to a single entry point for project assistance, and (4) encourage more financial capability development activities at the network level. A project design that contains the three target level approach emphasizing social capability development at the group level, technical and social capability at the individual level, and financial and social capability at the network level was proposed for future projects.

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Esucation and training of forestry labor have been recognized as a social issue since structural changes in the forestry labor market in 1990s, unlike previously regarded as a mere management issue for individual enterprises. Development of a new policy has been demanded to address this issue. This paper describes current status and issues of education and training of labor by forestry enterprises in Hokkaido as a case study, and discusses the way towards the forestry labor measures. Questionnaire and interviews were employed for this purpose. The analysis of the questionnaire reveals three trends; 1) the support for labor to take various trainings depends on the scale of enterprises, 2) owner enterprises are unconcerned with education and training of subcontractors, 3) many enterprises have recently started collaboration to secure and train the workforce. Interview survey confirmed two situations; 1) contractors of Hokkaido Prefectural forest have developed collaboration in worker trainings, 2) the forest owners associations rarely support education and training of subcontractors despite the fact that they depend on subcontractors to carry out their operations. To address these issues, it is suggested that a public system should be developed to support smaller enterprises and their labors that have limited opportunities for training.

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In the middle of the Meiji era, as the Western manufactured paper industry was introduced, Yoshii Genta, a technical expert of Tosa paper in Kochi Prefecture, developed new techniques of papermaking, such as the technique of sizing, through borrowing into the conventional technology from Western scientific knowledge. These new techniques contributed to diversify the kind of available raw materials and production efficiency improved. As a result, new types of writing paper, copying paper, and paper for various uses were created. These new techniques increased the output of the Japanese paper, and became the basis of modern functional papers.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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