TIMBER PROCUREMENT BY THE COAL MINING INDUSTRY IN MODERN JAPAN

Abstract

Hokkaidō Colliery & Railway Company (HCRC), renamed the Hokkaidō Colliery & Steamship Company (HCSC) in 1906, was a major coal mining company in Japan. This study examines the changes in timber procurement that occurred from the time that the company was established in 1898 to the end
of the Pacific war in 1945. The objective is to clarify, at the level of an individual firm, the relationship between industrialization on the one hand and both deforestation and forest conservation on the other. As the coal mining industry typically used a large amount of timber to support pit tunnels and
coal faces, some coal companies secured their supply by holding and managing their own forests. When the government transferred state forests to private companies, in order to promote the development of Hokkaidō island, HCSC expanded its activities to include the management of company-
owned forests and the planting of larch trees. HCSC still continued to procure timber from other sources, however, and its own forests were not just for timber supply yield but were also used as a buffer during supply shortages and market price increases. Occasionally, for example, HCSC used
timber from its own forests to discourage timber merchants from raising prices. As a result of this market-based rationale, HCSC considered abandoned forest conservation efforts during wartime when economic controls on prices were introduced. The findings of this case study suggest that
HCSC’s main priority was maintaining the sustainable procurement of mine timbers on the market, followed by that of conserving forest resources.