This study provides a literature review of trends in tourism and recreation research in forest economics since the 2000s from four perspectives: 1) the development of policies and research; 2) the optimization of tourism; 3) local communities and tourism; and 4) recreational forest use. The findings indicate that research themes have progressed over time. For example, although research on green tourism and national forests has declined, research on recreational forest use has grown rapidly since the mid-2010s. Additionally, issues common to each perspective were identified, such as the risk management problems associated with outdoor activities. In summary, three issues must be addressed: 1) integrating and systemizing research in each subfield of forest economics; 2) adapting to tourist diversification; and 3) accumulating evidence on policy deficiencies, with references to international cases.

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As a 70th Anniversary Article for the Japanese Forest Economics Society, this study reviewed past research on public finance and local government in forest policy. Since the 2000s, many studies have been conducted on public finance research, including those by public finance researchers and especially on Forest Environment Taxes. As for research on local government, studies based on expectations of local government expanded in discussions about forest management in the early 2000s, but interest gradually shifted to practical issues such as personnel capacity. Research on municipal forest administration thus became the main focus. While these studies have succeeded in clarifying specific themes and advancing research methods, however, fundamental discussions on how public finances and local autonomy should be handled in forest policy have not yet been sufficiently addressed.

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This paper describes the trends in research on the wood industry in “Journal of Forest Economics”, “Forest Economy”, “Journal of the Japanese Forest Society” and “Journal of Forest Research” since 2000. In the qualitative research, the changes in the structure and issues of the wood industry were organized, and the characteristics and developments of wood industry research after 2000 were considered. In the quantitative research, previous research was reviewed with economics as the main axis, and the possibilities for future research development in the field of forestry economics were considered in light of trends in empirical analysis in economics. In the research of the wood industry, it is important to continue to consider the relationship between forests and humans in society, and to present a variety of options, while combining the results and theories of quantitative research, which quantitatively grasps trends and regularities in social and economic changes, and qualitative research, which grasps the specific actions of regions and organizations in terms of events.

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By 2024, thirty-seven prefectures had introduced local forest environment taxes, primarily to raise revenue for forest- and forestry-related projects. However, limited research has investigated the fiscal structures of forest and forestry policy following the introduction of these taxes. This study examines trends from FY2001 to FY2010 in forestry expenditures, their detailed budgetary categories (referred to as moku), and funding sources in four Tohoku prefectures: two taxing prefectures (Iwate and Fukushima) and two non-taxing prefectures (Aomori and Miyagi), which are geographically close to one another. Among the 37 prefectures that introduced these local forest environment taxes, Iwate and Fukushima imposed relatively high tax rates. From FY2006, when Iwate and Fukushima introduced the tax, differences in trends in both forestry expenditures and the allocation of general revenue resources were observed between the taxing and non-taxing prefectures. These differences appeared to primarily stem from the budgetary categories related to forestry public corporations and their associated projects. From FY2008, the taxing prefectures increased their allocation of general revenue resources to forestry expenditures compared with the non-taxing prefectures. However, this increase was concentrated in categories related to forestry public corporations, with little or no increase observed in categories associated with tax-funded or other forestry projects.

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