This article analyzes the developments of Japan's community －led artificial afforestation projects in the second half of the 20th century, with a specific investigation of communal forest management in Yamamoto District, Iida City, Nagano Prefecture.

In the 1950s, Nagano Prefecture's forestry policy aimed at reforestation of cutover areas, which had expanded during the Second World War. Prefectural authorities assigned the task of reforestation to the various rural communities. Yamamoto District's leadership conditionally accepted the reforestation instructions concerning communal areas to the extent permitted by the manpower available. Additionally, the areas to be reforested were designated so that they would not overlap with those where local people had “commoner rights” to cut brushwood and grass and to make charcoal. The “commoners” requested a house－by－house allotment of the earnings from the communal forest in return for planting and nurturing saplings. Their request led the District leadership to sell most of the standing trees of natural tree species in the communal forest. In consequence, Yamamoto District was confronted with the daunting problem of implementing extensive artificial afforestation projects of the cutover areas, far beyond its financial capacity and manpower.

The District proceeded to introduce afforestation funds provided by the government－affiliated Forest Development Corporation. The Yamamoto District Property Ward, headed by the Iida City mayor, was established as the body receiving these funds. From the 1960s on, the afforestation projects funded by the corporation promoted the expansion of plantation stands of certain conifer species, the planting and aftercare of which were outsourced to outside labor organizations. The expansion of the plantations led to increases in the value of communal forest, which in turn raised the fee for commoner rights so high that applications for new entry ceased despite the increase in the number of households in the Yamamoto District. As non－commoner households increased in number, the Yamamoto District leadership began promoting the accession of entire households to commoner rights by redeeming the vested interests of the existing commoners and reducing the entry fee. This measure enabled almost all living households to share equally in the proceeds from the communal forest, which also symbolized the public character of the management of communal forests.