Cutting down stereotypes
Japan was in a state of shock last week, after it was announced that the population had begun dropping in the first half of this year. The shrinking population has been predicted for years, but the trend had begun two years earlier than expected. This raised yet again the knotty issue of bringing in more foreigners to keep the Japanese economy and the social system going. But most Japanese - especially xenophobic, conservative leaders - are still not ready for a flood of newcomers into the society.
Their best compromise is to invite only the qualified foreign professionals that Japan badly needs. It suffers a shortage of information-technology specialists and nurses, holes being filled currently with Indians and, increasingly, Filipinos. Soon another group of foreigners may be welcome in Japan - foresters from China.
Forestry was once a good business in this country. But in recent decades, lumber prices have plummeted amid a massive flow of cheaper imports, and many forest workers shifted to other jobs. In 1975, 180,000 Japanese worked in forestry, but only 67,000 were left in 2000. With fewer foresters, the value of Japan's woodlands - which cover two-thirds of the country - declined for lack of proper thinning.
Then a small non-profit organisation in Nagoya, named Guko-i-Zando, known as Trimwoods in English, got an idea about tending the forests. They learned that hundreds of thousands of forestry workers were losing their jobs in China, as government policies on nature preservation banned cutting in many forests. Why not ask those skilled Chinese to work in Japanese forests? It would provide them with jobs in their chosen profession while saving Japanese forests from further deterioration.
A few years ago, the group contacted the forestry office in Jilin province, through their Chinese counterpart, a local environmental NGO. In 2003, the first 20 Chinese forest workers arrived in Aichi prefecture, in central Japan, to help local forestry unions and forest owners. The following year, another batch came and put in 300 days of work. They trimmed stands of timber and the NGO sold the wood to local sawmills, producing modest revenues. Now remote Japanese villages that need foresters are showing interest in the scheme, and there is talk of selling lumber to the Chinese market.
The partners are planning a joint company to manage a stable flow of Chinese workers in future. Even the eminent Japan External Trade Organisation is supporting the NGO project. Who knows? This scheme might just turn into a model for amicable collaboration between the two nations.
