Seeing the Timber for the Forest

Generalist descriptions of Japan often begin with two seemingly contradictory statements. One is that “Japan is a heavily forested country,” an observation that is by any measure indisputable. The second is that “Japan is a country largely lacking in natural resources,” a lesson taught not only by geographers and economic historians, but by virtually all narrative histories of World War II, in which Japan conquers large areas of the rest of Asia because of its need for “strategic (natural) resources.” Working both formulaic statements into a single introductory paragraph, a common device of Japanese and foreign writers alike, presupposes that Japan’s forests are not a “natural resource,” or at least not one suitable to the sustenance of a modern, industrial economy. The singularity of this formula is apparent only when one compares it to generalist descriptions of other forested places. A discussion of, say, Indonesia, could not possibly separate the “heavily forested” observation from a “natural resource” statement so blithely.