This study analyzed the characteristics of forestry management in modern Japan from the case of Yoshida Zenzaburo family who conducted large-scale forestry management in the Miyagawa river basin in the southern area of Mie Prefecture. In modern Japan, advanced forestry management is said to have been conducted in the Kii Peninsula, and the forestry management in the Yoshino region of Nara Prefecture became the model.
In the Yoshino region, the afforestation business has been conducted continuously since the early-modern times, and high-value-added wood was produced by carefully growing forests during the long cutting period at a cost. However, even in the same Kii Peninsula, in the southern part of Mie Prefecture, which was a later established region, afforestation was conducted simultaneously in modern times, and the afforestation period, during which expenses continued for a long time, required financial measures for this purpose. Therefore, the Yoshida family established a bank by themselves together with forestry management and provided financial support to foresters in the southern area of Mie Prefecture.
Later, when the scale of forestry management of the Yoshida family became enormous amid the increase in the demand for wood during World War I, the demand for the family's own funds expanded. Therefore, the Yoshida family merged their bank with a large bank in the urban area and received loans from the large bank to exclusively conduct modern forestry management. Consequently, in several forestry areas developed later in modern Japan, it became difficult to continue to pay for forest growth until high-value-added wood was grown in the long cutting period such as the Yoshino region, and income was secured by cutting wood in a short cycle.
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