ForestAlert.org, through objective, desk-based research of corporate environmental policy, trade statistics and media reports, has compiled the following list of 12 leading Japanese companies who we consider are noteworthy for investing in, trading or buying illegal and unsustainable forest products from the threatened forests of Southeast Asia and the Russian Far East.
These are by no means the only companies involved. Links to profiles of a number of these can be found at the Which Companies are Involved.
We encourage you to educate yourselves as to who is doing what among corporate Japan and express your views directly to the companies via our "Act Now!" feature. We welcome your thoughts on this list, which is evolving, and welcome a debate if you feel we are being unduly harsh, or too kind!
Founded in 1691, this company is one of the largest vertically integrated wood companies in Japan.
Its activities range from logging, through wood processing and distribution to house-building. It has long been involved in tropical forest logging and continues to import around 10% of all logs and plywood entering Japan, primarily from Russia and Southeast Asia, where illegal and unsustainable logging is widespread.
Given the scale of its operations it is highly likely that this company imports considerable quantities of illegal wood from threatened primary forests into Japan
Ricoh is a 17 billion USD multinational technology company that also derives significant profits in Japan through the supply of copy paper. Much of this is supplied directly from Asia Pulp and Paper which in turn clear-cuts Sumatra's last rain forests to produce the cheapest copy paper in the world. Ricoh extols the merits of its environmental management as a company. Each year Ricoh sells the remnants of around 50 km2 of threatened rainforest as copy paper in Japan. This trade makes a mockery of the company's "Promote Green Purchasing" slogan.
1.6 billion USD in sales make this one of the leading wooden building materials companies in Japan, with extensive operations in Malaysia and Indonesia.
It is drawing the wrath of pressure groups for forced relocation of peoples in Sarawak to make way for its plantation.
The wasteful practice of using tropical plywood (mainly from Indonesia where illegal logging is widespread) for concrete moldings, which are general discarded after a single use remains widespread in the Japanese construction sector.
ForestAlert.org estimates that Taisei uses a volume of tropical wood equivalent to 0.2 million m3 of logs (50 km2 of tropical forest) each year, while Takenaka uses 0.1 million. There are many others. Despite slow reductions in use of illegal and unsustainably-sourced tropical wood for this purpose, it remains prevalent.
Japan's leading plywood maker, uses 2.4 million m3 of logs, mostly from Russia and Southeast Asia. A key use of its plywood is for disposable, wasteful concrete-forming molds. Its log use is probably mostly from primary forests where illegal logging is rampant and represents around 500 square kilometers of primary, threatened forest, an area the size of Singapore each year...
One of Japan's largest trading companies, it has been closely involved with tropical forest logging for decades, directly and through affiliates. Among other things, Itochu continues to import copy paper from APP which is sourced from Sumatra's last remaining low-land primary forests.
Along with Itochu, this trading company giant supplies APP's paper to Japan. Marubeni has a significant stake in a highly controversial paper mill: PT TEL, in Sumatra. It is a leading importer of logs from Papua New Guinea, where illegality of logging is estimated by some to be 100%.
This trading firm probably imports more tropical wood into Japan than any other, largely from Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It has close relations with Samling, a much criticised Malaysian logging group. As with Itochu and Marubeni, Sojitz refuses to commit to a detailed and transparent supplier management program to ensure legal and sustainable forestry in the regions it sources from.
The Nippon Paper Group is a 10 billion USD paper/paperboard group with mills and sourcing activities worldwide. It buys woodchips from Tasmania's remaining primary forests and is invested in a controversial paper-pulp plantation in Sumatra. The company is perhaps the largest single user of forestry products in Japan, using the equivalent of 9 million m3 of logs for its paper making each year, a significant portion from hardwood (i.e. primary forest) sources.
Along with Nippon Paper, one of Japan's Top 2 paper makers with 10 billion USD in sales. The company has a history of sourcing cheap raw materials obtained in an unsustainable manner. It continues to source woodchips or pulp from Tasmania's remaining ancient temperate forests and the Russian Far East, where illegal logging is rampant.
While not a major actor in tropical forest destruction, the 1.1 billion USD office supply retailer openly resells in Japan copy paper made by Asia Pulp and Paper, the notorious Indonesian company responsible for widespread clear cutting of Sumatra's primary forest for paper manufacture.
An 8 billion USD conglomerate which dominates home interior markets in Japan, using extensive Russian Far East sourced wood. How it ensures that none of this is illegal wood is unclear.
ACT NOW!
Send a letter of protest to Itochu Corporation over its sourcing of paper/pulp from Sumatra's endangered, remaining lowland forests.
Send a message to CEO and CSR head of Nippon Paper, one of Japan's leading paper firms who continue to use Tasmania's primary forests for paper production.
HSBC, Credit Suisse Make A Mockery of Their Environmental Policy
Major news media in Hong Kong reported that two of the worldfs largest European banks, Credit Suisse and HSBC are to be arranging a USD 250 million share placement on the Hong Kong market in early March 2007 on behalf of the Samling Group, one of Malaysiafs largest forestry companies. The Samling Group has faced almost constant attack from pressure groups in Malaysia and internationally for the last thirty years over its allegedly destructive logging practices and corrupt business methods. The Group has its origins in northeast Sarawak where it been responsible for the logging of most of the primary forest in the region. It has since moved on to logging of primary forests in Cambodia, Guyana and through subsidiaries, in Papua New Guinea. Only a small portion of its forestry activities involve managed plantation forests, through a recently acquired operation in New Zealand. The involvement of these two banks in helping Samling to raise funds appears to be in direct conflict of their respective pledges on supporting sustainable forestry.
How the West is Funding the Greatest Climate Change Culprit
In the name of fighting terrorism, the United States and G8 powers are funding the Indonesian security apparatus which is standing by as the countryfs forests are illegally burnt year after year. Repeated forest fires, condoned and often aided by the military in the worldfs third largest tropically forested nation are responsible, on average in each of the last ten years, for half the carbon emissions of the United States and more than five times the Kyoto Protocolfs target for annual reduction!
Nippon Paper Asks for Comments on its Procurement Policy
Japan's leading paper company has produced a raw materials procurement policy relating to its buying of pulp, wood chips and paper for its operations. While the policy states that Nippon Paper will not utilise sources which use illegal logging, the policy is woefully lacking in details and makes no mention of phasing out of sourcing from highconservation value forests (HCVF) such as Tasmania's remaining primary forests, which it currently buys from.
Heavily logged northeast Sarawak's remaining primary forests are under assault by logging company Samling Strategic, one of Malaysia's leading forestry groups. Their activities are destroying the last primary forest habitat of the Penan tribes in the area, threaten the age-old Bario Highlands and involve illegal extraction of logs from accross the Indonesian border.
Sumatra's Last Primary Forests Sold as Copy Paper in Japan
Askul and Itochu are some of the leading business partners in Japan of Asia Pulp and Paper, an Indonesian pulp/paper company widely criticized for its unsustainable logging of high-biodiversity primary forests. The Japanese remain their best customer for copy paper.
