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

20世纪90年代以来，木材生产结构和国际林产品贸易发生了巨大变化。自然资源储量的减少和自然资源民族主义的兴起导致了生产地点的转变，从天然林到人工林，在商品形式上，从圆木到更多的最终产品。日本和韩国作为亚洲最大的林产品进口国，也不得不根据这种世界趋势作出改变。然而，这些变化的方向和程度在两国之间因木材消耗的数量和类型而异。在日本，木材主要用于房屋建筑，作为结构木材，而韩国在工程、建筑、室内和家具方面的需求更大。因此，日本转向了高附加值产品的进口，而韩国仍然以低等级的圆木进口为主。东南亚天然林资源的迅速退化和萎缩促使两国扩大人工林产品的进口，并使林产品出口国多样化。日本和韩国在基本结构上有相似之处，但在东南亚林产品贸易方面存在一些差异。例如，作为胶合板的替代品，日本的木板进口正在增加，而在木材加工产业中，家具占据重要地位的韩国则处于集团化阶段。世界的趋势是减少森林产品，特别是从热带进口圆木，日本和韩国也是如此。在这种情况下，两国林产品进口商不得不保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，与日本和韩国的趋势相反，中国从东南亚进口的林产品正在增加。

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.