The modernization of this remarkable island empire of Niphon (the native name), which began in 1868, included the organization of a forest department after German models. Curiously enough, there are other noteworthy points of similarity to be found in the historic development of forestry in Germany and Japan.

The empire comprises four larger islands—Kiushiu, Shikoku, Hondo or Honshiu, and Hokkaido or Yesso—and a host of smaller ones, stretching in a chain of nearly 3,000 miles north and south along the Asiatic shore, the width of land being nowhere over 200 miles. It comprises an area of nearly 150,000 square miles, with a population approximating 50 million, largely engaged in fisheries and other sea industries.

The islands are of volcanic origin—part of the “girdle of fire” which reaches from the Alaska peninsula through the Philippines to the Antilles—with many active craters, subject to frequent disastrous earthquakes and tidal waves; mountainous, with numerous ranges of high hills and with lofty central ridges, with numerous short rivers, apt to turn into treacherous torrents, while hurricanes and waterspouts, typhoons and equinoctial gales sweep the surrounding seas frequently.

The soil is nowhere particularly fertile, but the patient and painstaking labor of the Japanese has brought every available foot of it—little more than 10% is arable—into producing condition, wherever the climate compensates for the infertility, especially in the most densely populated part, the southern half of Hondo.

Extending through 30 degrees of latitude, the climate naturally varies from the tropical one of Formosa, through all variations of the temperate, to the alpine one of the high mountains and the nearly arctic one of the Kurile islands. The Japan current skirting the eastern coast, and the mountain ranges, with elevations generally not exceeding 6,000 feet, occasionally up to over 13,000 feet, which cut off the dry continental west winds, also produce great climatic variations between east and west coasts. In general, however, the climate of the whole empire is characterized by a high percentage of relative humidity and ample rainfall, especially during the hot season, producing luxuriant growth.

1. Forest Conditions, and Ownership.

Due to these great variations in climate, four climatic regions being differentiated, the forest flora of Japan almost rivals in variety that of the United States, with over 200 deciduous, and more than 30 coniferous species of size (besides a large number of half-trees), although not more than some 50 or 60 are of silvicultural importance, and not more than 10 or 12 species form the basis of forest management and of the lumber trade, which requires some two billion cubic feet annually, and supports an export of over six million dollars. The value of the total cut was, in 1907, placed at over 17 million dollars, of which six million was to the credit of the State Treasury.

In the tropical districts, bamboos form the main staple; in the subtropical region, the most densely populated and hence also almost forestless, the broadleaf evergreens, especially several species of oak, furnish desirable fuel wood, and two species of pine are most valued for timber, one, the Red Pine (P. densiflora) extending its realm rapidly over waste areas; camphor tree and boxwood furnish ornamental wood.

The region of temperate forest furnishes, out of over 60 species, some 14 conifers and 19 broadleaf trees of value, the former mainly of the cedar tribe, with Chamaecyparis obtusa and Cryptomeria japonica the most widely used, while of the broadleaf species, which occupy more than 50 per cent. of the forest area, Zelkowa keaki, of the elm tribe, a chestnut, a beech, several oaks, a walnut, and an ash count among the most useful.

Spruce, Fir, and White Birch are the trees of the northern forest.

Mixed forest forms 45%, broadleaf 25%, conifer 21%, and 9% is rated as blank or thinly stocked.

The forest area, which, over the whole, covers, with the addition of the newly acquired island of Saghalien, 67% of the land area, or around 75 million acres (1¹/₄ acres per capita), is quite unevenly distributed according to topography and population, being mostly confined to the mountain ranges and hills which form the backbone of the country, and to the northern provinces, which contain still large, untouched areas. Hokkaido, which was opened up to colonization only 35 years ago, now with a population of only 20 to the square mile, has 63% of forest, 15 acres per capita; the northern part of Hondo has a somewhat greater area per cent., mostly on the high steep mountains, but only 1.2 acres per capita; on the southern portion, the low ranges of hills and valleys the forest area has been reduced to 53%, but shows only three-quarter acre per capita; and Okinawa, with 26%, and less than one-third acre per capita, shows the lowest.

Of this forest area, however, almost one-half is “hara,” brush forest, chaparral, or dwarfed tree growth—the result of mismanagement, excessive cutting and fires—and in the southern districts, impenetrable thickets of dwarf bamboo, which crowd out tree and even shrub growth wherever such mismanagement gives it entrance. These extensive haras are cut every two or five years for the brush, which is used to cover and furnish manure for rice fields.

Fire, which, until lately, ran over 5 or 6 million acres annually, and ruthless cutting, have in the past and are still deteriorating the forest area.

Grassy prairie and barrens due to natural conditions are not absent, and are due to excessive drainage through loose coarse-grained rock soil; they are found, not extensively, at the foot of volcanoes, and on highest elevations. The differentiation of land areas is not quite certain. In 1894, there was still 30.5% of grassy prairie reported, but some of this, no doubt, was forested, probably one-half.

The bulk of the forest area is owned by the State and the Imperial Household. Communal forests are estimated to aggregate, in 1904, somewhat over four million acres (7.5%), in 1910 reported as 11%, and private property some 18 million (26%; in 1910, 22%) leaving 30 million for the State and for Imperial or Crown forest (66%), the latter comprising some 5.5 million acres.

These figures are liable to variation, due to sales of the latter class, and to adjustments of the somewhat obscure property rights.

The ownership by the State and a conservative use of the mountain forest is necessitated by the protective value of the forest cover, the cultivation of the extensive rice fields being dependent upon irrigation.

2. Development of Forest Policy.

The history of Japan dates back to 660 B.C., when the empire was founded on the island of Kiushiu by the warrior king Jimmuteno. He established a kind of feudal government, with the daimios (knights or barons) holding their fiefs from the mikado, who was considered the sole owner of the soil, or at least all exercise of ownership rights emanated from him. Private property seems then not to have existed at all, the people having merely rights of user. Colonization of the islands brought under the mikado’s dominion progressed rapidly, and with it, not only arable portions but even mountains were denuded.

With the beginning of the Christian era, the need of better protection against floods seems to have been recognized, and, in 270 A.D., we find the first forest official appointed, a son of the royal house, who with assistants was to regulate the use of the forest property, which, under the rights of user granted by the mikado, was being excessively exploited and devastated.

In the fifth century, the feudal method of giving fiefs of land and forest to the deserving vassals had come generally into vogue, and later, with the rise of Buddhism, forests were assigned to the temples and priests, who, as in Germany the monks, were assiduous in cultivating and utilizing them.

Soon the daimios, similarly to the barons in Germany, began to assert exclusive property rights, and, notwithstanding various edicts, issued from time to time to secure free use to the people, more and more of the forest area was secured by daimios, and by priests as temple forests.

In the ninth century, deforestation and excessive exploitation had so far progressed that not only the need of protecting watersheds was recognized by edicts, but fear of a timber famine led even to planting in the provinces of Noto.

A period of internal strife and warfare during the following centuries which left forest interest in the background, led, in 1192, to the establishment of the rule of the shoguns, the hereditary military representatives of the mikado, who made him a mere figurehead, and exercised all the imperial functions themselves, until the revolution of 1868 restored the mikado to his rights.

The effort at conservative forest use was renewed with increased harshness when, after a period of warfare and devastation, the great shogun family of Tokugawa (1603) assumed the rule of the empire, enforcing the restrictive edicts with military severity. Even at that early age, the protective influence of forest cover on soil and waterflow was fully recognized, and a distinction of open or supply forest and closed or protection forests seems to have been made, the latter being placed under the ban of the emperor or shogun, and withdrawn from utilization. The extensive forests of the province of Kiso, the best remaining, owe their preservation to these efforts. The daimios, 260 in number, each in his district, enforced the edicts in their own way, giving rise thereby to great differences in forest administration; yet in the absence of technical knowledge, deterioration continued. The severity of punishments for depredations etc., reminds us of those of the German Markgenossen, a hand or finger being the penalty for theft, death by fire that for incendiaries.

The idea of protecting or reserving certain species of trees, which was practiced in India by the rajahs, we find here again in the beginning of the 18th century, the number of such protected species varying from one to seven and even fifteen in different districts. Another unique and peculiar way of encouraging forest culture was to permit peasants who made forest plantations in the State forests, to bear a family name, a right which was otherwise reserved to the knights or samurli, or to wear a double-edged sword like the latter. Arbor days were also instituted, memorial days and festivities, as at the birth of children, being marked by the planting of trees.

While in Germany the love of hunting had led to the exclusion of the people from the forests, in Japan it was a question of conserving wood supplies that dictated these policies.

It is claimed that to these early efforts is due the preservation of the remaining forests. But, while this may be true in some instances, as in the province of Kiso, more probably their distance from centers of consumption and their general inaccessibility preserved those of Hokkaido and of the northern mountains. Certainly the brush forests south of Tokyo do not testify to great care.

The detested shogunate was abolished in 1867 by a revolution which brought the mikado to his rights again and crushed the power of the daimios, whose fiefs were surrendered, and their acquisitions of forest property, as well as (a few years later) those of the priests, were declared State property, with the exception of some which were recognized as communal properties.

Similar to the experiences of France, the disturbances in property conditions, which implied instantaneous loss by the people of all rights of user in the State property as well as removal of all restrictions from private and communal properties, led to wholesale depredations from the State domain, and to widespread deforestation and devastation, an area of a million acres of burnt waste near Kofu, west of Tokyo, testifying to the recklessness of these times.

Without any force to guard property rights, stealing on an extensive scale, similar to past experiences in the United States, with the accompanying wastefulness, became the order of the day, and is even now not uncommon.

A first provisional administration of State forests was inaugurated, and a forest reconnaissance ordered in 1875 in order to secure insight into the mixed-up property relations, and restore to their rightful owners such portions as had been wrongly taken by the State.

In 1878, the State forests were placed under a special bureau organized by Matsuno, who had studied forestry in Germany (Eberswalde) for five years. But it was not academic knowledge that was needed in the situation; it was necessary first to mould public opinion in order to secure means for administrative measures.

This he set himself to do through public addresses and pamphlets, and by organizing a society of friends of forest culture, and finally, in 1882, by establishing an experiment station at Nishigahara, and, a year later, a dendrological school, which four years later was combined with the agricultural school at Komaba; five years later both were joined to the University of Tokyo.

With the transfer of the forestry bureau to the Department of Agriculture and Commerce in 1881, and a reorganization in 1886, a new era seemed to be promised, yet a substantial progress in organized forest management of the State property does not seem to have been made for another decade at least, the slow progress being largely due to lack of personnel and the continuance of mixed property conditions, which involved not only uncertainty of boundaries, but also mixed ownerships.

Although this last trouble, namely of mixed ownership by State and private individuals, had been recognized as inimical to good management, it was deliberately increased by the law of 1878 in a curious way, reviving an old custom, namely by permitting private individuals to plant up clearings in the State forests; in this way, these individuals secured a certain percentage, usually 20 per cent., of the eventual profits arising from the results. Some 200,000 acres were planted under this arrangement.

To remove the boundary difficulty, a survey of the boundaries of State property and adjustment of property rights, as well as segregation of the State lands to be disposed of, namely small lots and others not needed, was ordered in 1890.

It was then also that the first provisional working plan for the fellings on State lands was elaborated, and gradually with the progress of the survey, more permanent plans were adopted for district after district.

By 1899, the adjustment had progressed far enough to begin the restoration of properties, which the State had improperly claimed, to their proper owners. It was then also that the Imperial forests, intended for the support of the Imperial household, were increased to about 5 million acres.

Meanwhile, the personnel had increased in numbers and improved in character. In 1904, the organization of the forestry bureau under the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, arranged somewhat after German models, consisted of one director and four forest commissioners with ten clerks, forming the head office; the sixteen districts into which the State forests were divided were presided over by 32 conservators and 80 inspectors, while 325 district officers with 880 assistants and 626 guards, altogether over 1,800 employes, formed the field force. In 1910, the number had increased to 2500, mainly by additional rangers. This organization applies to the State forests under control of the Department of Agriculture. Strangely enough, those in Saghalien, Hokkaido and Formosa are not under that department, but under the supervision of the Minister of Home Affairs, and are merely exploited, while the Imperial forests are under the Household Department. In 1907, only 7 per cent. of the State forests were under working plans.

The need of supervision of the ill-managed private and communal forests, mostly located near the settled portions, early attracted the attention of the new regime, mainly on account of their protective value. Annual losses through floods to the amount of four million dollars, and similar losses due to unchecked forest fires gave the incentive to the passage of a law, in 1882, simply forbidding all forest use in protection forest, which simple prescription evidently did not work until a further revision was made in 1897. This latter does not confine itself to legislation for protection forests alone, but also authorizes the supervision of supply forests, under the special control of the local governors. Under this law, which also extended the assistance of local authorities to would-be planters, aided by reforms in the corporation system, remarkable activity in planting waste lands ensued, so that in the next two years not less than one million acres of communal property was set out with trees, numbering over 800 million, while in the State forests, some 400,000 acres of vacant land had been planted by 1970. Some sand dune planting and reboisement works are also the result of this legislation. Further legislation more closely defining State control was had in 1907.

In connection with this planting, it may be of interest to record the attitude of Japanese foresters toward natural regeneration: “This is no longer popular in these days when the knowledge of forest management possessed by foresters has become highly developed, for if that method is the easiest and least troublesome, nevertheless it is not advisable, in view of the necessity of effecting a thorough improvement in our silvicultural conditions. Only on steep slopes and for protection forests is it applicable.”

In 1897, also, some eight experiment stations were organized, in addition to the earlier one at Nishigahara organized, in 1882, by Matsuno.

Education in forestry has lately run riot in Japan as it has in the United States. Since the first school, organized in 1882, not less than 62 institutions had seen the need of offering the opportunity to become acquainted with that subject. By 1910, these had been reduced to 47. Here, however, different grades are frankly acknowledged. There are three collegiate institutions whose diploma admits to the higher service, four are of secondary grade, nineteen give special courses, and the rest treat the subject merely as a subsidiary of a practical education including agriculture, stock-farming and fishery. A ranger school, which was instituted under Matsuno’s guidance, controlled by the forestry bureau, came to an end during the Russian war for lack of funds, but has probably been revived again.

A forestry association now with 4000 members carries on propaganda and publishes a magazine, and co-operative associations among small owners to facilitate better management are being formed under the law of 1907.

In conclusion, we may say that Japan has done wonders in reorganizing its forestry system in a short time, but, according to one competent observer, while all the Japanese care for detail and love for orderliness is apparent in the office, not all that is found on paper is to be found as yet in the woods, and that, for similar reasons as have been indicated for Russia; many things happen in the woods that are not known in the office.

KOREA.

The latest move in forest reform in this part of the world, as a result of Japanese influence, is to be recorded from Korea. Indeed, in 1910, Japan annexed Korea, and will doubtless apply her own methods in the new province. The forest area of Korea comprises only about 2,500,000 acres, out of an area of nearly 53 million acres of very mountainous country. A concession for the exploitation of the northern forests to a Russian, which included the re-planting with “exotic” tree species, was the immediate cause of the Russo-Japanese war. In 1907, by co-operative arrangements with Japan, a conservative forest policy was to be inaugurated by laws similar to those of Japan.

Drouth, floods and erosion of soils have been common experiences. The preservation of forest cover, especially at the headquarters of the Yalu and Tumen in the northern part of the country, is aimed at.

For this purpose the government has taken all forests under its care. All private owners or lease holders must report their holdings and have their property listed, and in case of failure to do so the property is forfeited. The government may then expropriate, or else regulate the cutting, or, where protective functions of the forest cover require it, may forbid cutting altogether.

A forestry school is also part of the program.

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