Japan's Forest Ire.(allergy producing cedars)(Brief Article)

Hidden behind a white surgical mask and a pair of goggles, Misako Onishi declares in a feeble voice, "This is a living hell." For the usually perky 32-year-old Tokyo resident, the onset of spring means a runny nose, a sore throat, twitchy eyes and constant sneezing. She's one of 13 million Japanese who battle kafunsho--an allergy caused by cedar pollen--from mid- February through early May. "I expect [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi-san to act immediately," says the watery-eyed Onishi. "This is more urgent--achoo!--than economic reform."

That may be a bit of an overstatement. But Onishi's runny nose is yet another reminder of the ills afflicting Japan's woeful economy. The prevalence of kafunsho is a direct result of decades of poor timber planning: as the country built itself into a powerhouse after World War II, vast tracts of natural-growth forest were replaced with cedar for construction. Now the bottom has dropped out of cedar prices because of slackening demand, meaning loggers have little incentive to cut down the trees. And unfortunately for Japan's allergy sufferers, the mature trees are just now reaching the age when they release the most pollen. Two years ago Tokyo estimated that kafunsho cost the nation more than $2 billion a year in lowered productivity and medical bills--a sum the sluggish economy can hardly afford.

Japanese have long had a special attachment to cedars. Fast-growing, durable, disease-resistant and straight, they have been used for building shrines, temples and homes for more than 1,000 years. During the Meiji Restoration, the government urged forest workers to replace natural broadleaf trees like beech and oak with needle-leaf trees, primarily cedar (cypress was the second favorite). As brisk demand for cedar lumber continued through World War II and the postwar rehabilitation, Japan cut down more than half of its natural trees. The government-directed replanting policy was maintained through the 1960s and 1970s when the economy rapidly expanded.

Yet while vast cedar forests were growing across Japan--mature trees aren't harvested until they're 30 years old--the Japanese economy was shrinking. Demand has plummeted: in 2000 Japanese cedar cost $59 per cubic meter, compared with $152 at its peak in 1981.

At the same time, the industry has been plagued by high labor costs and an aging work force (a third of Japan's 70,000 ...