The third pillar – or the 'third arrow' – of Shinzo Abe's economic strategy aims to revitalize the economy with what in Italy are called 'structural reforms': liberalisations, simplifications, revitalization of sectors in decline… Among the latter there are forest products.
More than two-thirds of the area of the Japan – a country roughly the size of Italy – is wooded, and in the process of being reforested, after over-exploitation in the first years after the Second World War, due to reconstruction. Now the trees planted decades ago are ready to be cut, with a view to sustainable use of forests. But there is no one who wants to do that job. At least until now. The Abe government wants to promote the consumption of domestic timber by various means, and the invitations and incentives are starting to be welcomed. One girl, Junko Otsuka, a graduate of the University of Tokyo, has left the commuter life and air-conditioned office in the capital, and has gone into the mountains to be a logger.
She is part of a 'nouvelle vague' of women - at least 3 - who work in the forests. The salary is 20% lower than before, but she likes the job much more. The government program, in addition to increasing the labor-intensive production of Japanese timber, aims to revitalize local communities. And the greens are happy too: first, because cut trees are part of a sustainable management of forest resources; second, because domestic consumption reduces imports, many of which come from countries where the exploitation of forests is excessive and ruins the environment.
