Takahashi, Takuya

The Japanese government has intervened in customary (Iriai-type) commons forests and fields (hereafter, “common forests”), mainly to promote timber-producing forestry in the industrialization era. This study examines how policy interventions since the 1960s have encouraged the groups holding common forests to obtain a more modern legal status, such as cooperatives or individual ownership, and organize themselves differently.
The Common Forests Modernization Act was enacted in 1966 (hereafter, “the Act”). The Act stipulates that prefectural staff may handle the complicated procedures of official registration, which are not required for customary Iriai rights, and that the registration tax shall be exempted or reduced. Since the enactment of the Act, approximately 30 to 40% of the 1.6 million ha Iriai-type common forests as of the year 1960 have been placed under modern types of ownership. However, since the late 1980s, the number of modernized customary forests has been low, indicating that modernization projects have stagnated.
We present the reasons for the stagnation and future visions for common forests in Japan. We argue that in addition to the low profitability of forestry in the post-industrialization era, anti-commons problems have hindered modernization. The government’s path-dependency and centralization tendencies have also contributed to this phenomenon. Furthermore, academia has had a relatively weak influence on policy formation. Drawing on the current trend of returning cooperative ownership to community organizations, we speculate on the possible or desirable future of common forests in Japan, which include non-modernized and modernized customary forests.

Japanese forest commons deal with anti-commons problems by discovering new forest ecosystem service values that were not previously recognized by residents. I reinterpret these actions as variations in the patterns of commoning. Over the past few decades, many Japanese forest owners and communities have suffered from the anti-commons (parcelization) phenomenon. Since the Edo Era (17th through 19th centuries), many Japanese commons forests have been subdivided and placed under private ownership. Individual owners of small subdivided forests (carved out of former commons forests) have lost interest in forestry, resulting in unclear borders. Many owners have relocated outside their villages (absent owners) and/or have passed the land down through generations, resulting in unknown ownership. The following two cases can be examples to ameliorate the anti-commons phenomenon in Japan: 1) Several residents’ associations collectively manage subdivided forests as one unit to reduce the damage caused by animals such as wild boars or deer. However, these units remain legally separate, and are owned by individuals. 2) A landowners’ association stipulated that a vacating resident owner must sell the forest to the remaining residents to protect the community’s water sources. These two cases show how newly discovered values, other than profit making, can help address the anti-commons phenomenon by motivating residents. Those values include gaining peace of mind by protecting the land against pest animals, and improving health by keeping the community’s drinking water pure. I also speculate about how commoners in these two cases can use pattern languages to enhance their commoning.