Takamura, Gakuto

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.