The area of man-made forest in Japan is around 10 million hectares (ha), most of which was planted within the last 40 years. Generally speaking, man-made forests have several weak points from a biological perspective. Since typhoon occur frequently in Japan forest owners are at risk for various kinds of damage, especially natural calamities. For example, the number and the total monetary damage they cause of forest fires in 1992 were 2262 and 321 million yen, respectively. The total area involved in natural calamities was 78,773 ha in 1991. Damage by insects and wildlife can not be ignored. The area of forest damaged by Bursaphelenchus lignicolus was 1.1 million m3 in 1992.
As one of the countermeasures against such damage, there is a forest insurance system. We have a three-part system, government forest insurance, private forest insurance and mutual relief from forest damage. The government forest insurance was started by the Law of Government Forest Fire Insurance in 1937 and managed by the Forestry Agency under the Government Forest Insurance Special Accounting. Private insurance companies started selling forest fire insurance in 1920. Mutual relief from forest damage was started as a welfare project of the Forest Owners Association in 1956. The objective of forest insurance managed by the private insurance companies is limited to compensation for fire, while the other two programs insure forests against damage by fire, storm, flood, snow, drought, frost, tide water and volcanic eruptions.
This paper reports on the following areas: (1) Statistical information on forest damage and forest insurance, (2) Forest owners' interest and requirement for forest insurance, (3) Problems and research directions. Recently, the forest insurance system was reorganized in Japan. One of the main reasons for reorganization was the financial problems in the government forest insurance program. Forest insurance is an important economic policy in the private forest sector, especially large-scale man-made forests. With the increase in man-made forest resources, the proportion of risk factors in forest management have been changing. Finally, the role and limitations of forest insurance are discussed.
Correspondence: Koji Matsushita, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Forestry, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-01, Japan
Telefax: +81-75-753-8129