Japanese loggers are planning to cultivate a market in China for cedar planted as part of the country’s post-war afforestation policy.
Some logs from Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan’s largest source of cedar, are already being exported to China. But the prefecture’s forestry union aims to target wealthy Chinese with the exports, as Japanese cedar is nearly twice as expensive as the Russian equivalent.
The union, which wants to popularise cedar as an interior material for homes, said its trees are rated highly in China because of their warm colour and “healing” scent.