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I am interested in researching the Japanese timber industry because it contains a newly forming tension between long-standing industry and land-use practices and global economic forces. At the national level a pattern of transition from industrial to post-industrial production is characterized by a switch from manufacturing to tertiary (service) sector production, and a decreased reliance on domestic raw materials. This transition in Japanese land use could serve as an important analogy to nations entering a similar state of development and resource use. I want to investigate the waning importance of Japanese plantation forests in order to better understand the economic context that surrounds them. This research will answer these two questions: how does the waning importance of traditional Japanese forestry fit into the larger global transition from economies fueled by manufacturing to economies fueled by tertiary sector goods? to has importing Malaysian and Indonesian timber replaced centuries old cycles of reforestation and deforestation that have occurred in Japan?