Watch as Japan's surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons

[Celerity]

https://aeon.co/videos/watch-as-japans-surplus-trees-are-transformed-into-forest-tinted-crayons



Following Japan’s efforts to rebuild after the devastation of the Second World War, roughly 70 per cent of the country’s land is now covered in trees – more than double the average of countries around the world. Today, the rise of the global supply chain means most commercial wood is imported from abroad. This has left Japan with ‘basically way too much wood’, as the UK artist Dan Coppen puts it in this short from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The video highlights a project by Coppen and his creative partner, the Japanese artist Saki Maruyama, who together form the design and art duo Playfool, to repurpose trees in inventive ways.

Participating in a residency programme funded by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the pair ultimately created a set of ‘forest crayons’ fashioned from the wood of a variety of Japanese trees. They hope their invention will help users ‘cultivate a closer relationship with forests’ that surround them. The project is, of course, not a practical plan for the nation’s overabundance of trees. However, Playfool’s creation shows how ingenuity of resources can yield surprising results that, depicted here, double as an exceptionally enjoyable watch.

Video by the Victoria and Albert Museum

Director: William Scothern

Producer: Holly Burton

5 August 2024

[Bayard]

1. I don't see how you can ever have too many trees.......

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

3. I had the same thought... what a problem to have "too many trees". But Id still like a set of those crayons

[Celerity]

5. Japan: Forests absorbing less CO2 as aging trees left uncared for

The aging of forests will also be problematic in preventing global warming, as older trees do not photosynthesize as much as younger ones, absorbing less CO2.

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20220718-45328/

Although the forest area in Japan hardly changed, the amount of greenhouse gases absorbed by forests fell by as much as 20% in the six years through to fiscal 2020. The decline was primarily due to an increase in the proportion of old trees, which photosynthesize less than younger ones, as the country’s forestry industry declines. Unless the amount of CO2 absorbed by forests is kept from falling too sharply, there is little hope for achieving the government’s target greenhouse gas reductions.

Half of trees over 50

The city of Sammu, located in the northeast of Chiba Prefecture, is known for high-quality Japanese cedar called “Sambu sugi.” Stepping into one of its forests, one sees trees with narrow trunks and others that stand dead. “Since there’s been no thinning, their growth stopped while their trunks were still narrow. It is time for trees to be cut down. But they are left uncared for due to low demand for domestic timber and a shortage of forestry workers,” said an official of the city government with a sigh.

According to the city government, its forest area totals 3,900 hectares, occupying one-quarter of the total area of the city. Of the forest area, only 12% is covered by management plans, such as for thinning and cutting-down the trees. In 2019, Typhoon No. 15 brought many trees down with strong winds, causing a large-scale power outage in parts of the city for about two weeks.

As trees in man-made forests in Japan were mostly planted between the 1950s and 1970s, and they are now more than 50 years old, the age at which they are suitable for cutting. But there has been an increase in the number of cases where these old trees are left to stand untended. According to the Forestry Agency, the area of man-made forests in Japan totals over 10 million hectares, almost unchanged since the 1980s. But the proportion of those trees age 51 or older grew from 2.15 million hectares, or 20% of the total, in 2007 to 5.1 million hectares, or 50% of the total, in 2017.



snip

[msongs]

2. they could use their oversupply to make their own chopsticks instead of using US forests nt

[Celerity]

4. Where did you see that Japan imports American wood to make their chopsticks?