Escaping COVID-19: When you can’t see the virus for the trees
Individuals are replacing forestry companies and large corporations in efforts to buy plots of affordable forestland — but for a very different reason.
Made in central Japan: Chubu bets on Tokyo Olympics to boost sales of local produce
With the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics taking place this year, prefectures in the Chubu region are eager to make the sporting event an opportunity to promote their local produce. In the village of Higashishirakawa, Gifu Prefecture, whose land is 90 percent covered by mountainous forests, ...
Forestry industry has growing appeal for Japan's young women
The lure of nature and a slower pace of life are attracting a growing number of young women to Japan's traditionally male-dominated forestry business, and their participation may help it cope with an aging workforce and a shortage of manpower. Junko Iizuka, a 33-year-old graduate ...
Japan's agricultural, forestry and fisheries output will suffer by up to ¥150 billion ($1.3 billion) once the effects of an 11-member Pacific Rim free trade agreement kick in, according to government estimates obtained by Kyodo News on Tuesday. The anticipated loss in output is smaller ...
Emperor and Empress visit central Japan forest managed by British-born author C.W. Nicol
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Monday paid a visit to woodland restored by British-born writer and environmentalist C.W. Nicol in Nagano Prefecture. The couple took a stroll in Afan Woodland in the town of Shinano, with the Emperor asking Nicol the names of various ...
Draft legislation to combat the import of illegally logged timber lacks the teeth needed to be effective.
NPO backs global certification for Minamiaizu's sustainable forests
In the town of Minamiaizu in southwestern Fukushima Prefecture, local efforts are gathering steam to promote its rich forestry resources to the world by obtaining global certification for quality woodlands. To that end, the nonprofit organization Minamiaizu Mori Network is playing a key role in ...
Women armed with chain saws head to the hills under Abe's growth plan
Junko Otsuka quit her job in Tokyo and headed for the woods, swapping a computer for a bush cutter and her air-conditioned office for the side of a mountain. She was part of a new wave of women taking forestry jobs, the result of economic, ...
Humans are wholly dependent on nature's cornucopia for food, clothing, shelter, many medicines, beer and wine -- to name just a few of life's essentials and pleasures. We also appear hardwired to control, dominate and undermine the complex systems of nature that serve us. From a ...
Is it so hard to see the forest for the trees?
Which other island nation's coasts have sea ice in the north and corals in the south? Japan's climate is also hugely influenced by a great continental mass on one side, a sea in between to moderate temperatures and pick up moisture and, to the ...
