Woody biomass potential estimation based on the wood flow in Japan

The purpose of this study is to make the wood flow in Japan, and to estimate the woody biomass potential. The wood flow is drawn based on the statistic data from Japan’s Forest Agency and METI. The domestic round wood, imported round wood, forest residue, energy wood, and construction waste are considered as supplied wood. In 2014, the domestic round wood 21 million m³ and the imported round wood 6 million m³ are consumed, and more than 30 million m³ wood products such as wood chips are imported. If all imported wood material is covered by domestic wood, the demand of round wood is increased to 77 million m³. To the compare the demand potential with resource potential, woody biomass potential is roughly estimated using the timber volume increment and the wood material production from 2007 to 2012. In these 5 years, the amount of increasing timber volume is 390 million m³, and annual wood production is 14-15 million m³/year. According to this data, the annual forest growth amount is more than 80 million m³. Therefore, in ideal situation, all wood resource demand in Japan can be covered by the domestic wood.