IV. Supply and use of wood products

1. Global Wood Products Trade and Japan's Status

Canada and the U.S. account for about 30% of the total value of global wood exports in 2000. As for the value of imports, Japan is the third largest wood products importing country following the U.S. and China.

The total demand for wood in Japan was 101 million m3 (log equivalent) in 2000 about 80% of which are imported. The share of imported timber is increasing.

Recently Japan's wood imports have been shifting from the import of logs to processed wood products. In 2000, log imports decreased by 4.1% from the previous year to 18.02 million m3, while the imports of processed wood products increased by 4.9% to 63.22 million m3.

2. Promotion of the Use of Human- and Environment-Friendly Wood

The use of wood is important in establishing environmentally friendly economy and society, and in maintaining healthy forests in Japan.

With the prospect that the number of housing starts will not increase, it is necessary to supply products which satisfy consumer needs for consisitent quality and performance and correspond to nature-consciousness and health-consciousness.

With the expectation of expansion in demand for housing reform, it is necessary to supply products which can be easily fabricated at the time of reconstruction and rearrangement.

About 50% of the wood waste at sawmills, construction sites and forestland, etc. is unused. The use of wood biomass(Note) energy is important from the point of effective use of unused resources and prevention of global warming by substituting fossil fuel.

(Note) Biomass is a resource derived from the byproducts of agriculture and forestry, the feces and urine of livestock, raw garbage, etc. Wood biomass is derived from wood materials such as wood waste at sawmills and construction sites.

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