Comparative study on the structural change in tropical timber trade : cases of timber impoters in Japan and Korea

自1990年S以来，木材生产和林产品国际贸易的结构发生了巨大变化。自然存量的减少和自然资源民族主义的抬头，导致了生产地从天然林向人工林的转移，从商品形式的转移，从圆木向更多的成品。作为亚洲最大的森林产品进口国，日本和韩国也被迫改变这种世界趋势。然而，这些变化的方向和程度在两国的木材消耗量和类型上有所不同。在日本，木材主要用于房屋建筑作为结构木材，而在韩国，对工程、建筑、室内和家具的需求更大。因此，日本转向进口高附加值产品，而韩国仍然以进口低等级圆木为主。东南亚天然森林资源的迅速退化和萎缩促使两国扩大人造森林产品的进口，并使森林产品出口国多样化。然而，日本和韩国在东南亚林产品贸易的基本结构上具有相似性，但也存在一些差异。例如，日本作为胶合板替代品的人造板进口正在增加，而韩国正处于集团化阶段，家具在木材加工业中占有重要地位。世界趋势是减少林产品，特别是从热带进口的圆木，日本和韩国也是如此。在这种情况下，两国的林产品进口商都不得不坚持更加重视最终产品贸易和扩大多边商业联系的战略。此外，中国从东南亚进口的林产品正在增加，与日本和韩国的趋势相反。

The structure of wood production and international trade of forest products have drastically changed since 1990's. Decline of natural stock and rise of natural resources nationalism led to shifts in site of production, from natural forests to forest plantations, and in commodity form, from round wood to more final products. Japan and Korea, as largest forest products importers in Asia, have also been obliged to change by such world trends. The direction and extent of these changes, however, vary between both countries with amount and type of wood consumption.In Japan, wood is used mainly in housing construction as structural timber, in contrast to larger demand on engineering works, construction, interior and furniture in Korea. As a result, Japan has shifted to import of high value-added products, while import of low-grade round wood is still dominant in Korea. Rapid degradation and shrinkage of natural forest resources in Southeast Asia urged both countries to expand import of artificial forest products and to diversifyforest products exporting countries. Sharing these similarities in basic structure, however, some differences can be found between Japan and Korea in trade of forest products from Southeast Asia. Import of wood panels, for instance, is increasing in Japan as a substitute of plywood, while it is under a stage of grouping in Korea where furniture takes an important place in wood processing industry.The world tendency is toward reduction of forest products, especially round wood import from the tropics, and so are Japan and Korea. Under such a circumstance, importers of forest products in both countries are compelled to keep the strategies to put greater importance on trade of final products and to expand multi-lateral business connections. In addition, import of forest products from Southeast Asia is increasing in China, contrary to the trend in Japan and Korea.