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Hitachi Construction Machinery Global
Hitachi Construction Machinery Global
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In addition to being used for timber, forests also serve purposes such as absorbing CO2, preventing landslides, and biodiversity protection. The various values of forests themselves are now being recognized.
With two-thirds of its land covered by forests, Japan is one of the world’s most forested countries. Trees that were planted all over Japan after World War II are now mature and ready to be felled. However, the number of forestry workers in Japan has decreased significantly in recent years, falling to about 40,000 from more than 140,000 in 1980. As a result, the number of mountain forest that cannot be properly maintained is increasing.
Shinhidaka Town in Hokkaido Prefecture is known as the “Hometown of Racehorses.” A vast pasture for thoroughbred horses stretches out from the coastline. 84% of the total area of Shinhidaka Town is a rich forest area connected to the Hidaka Mountains. Takano Forestry is responsible for maintaining the forest in this area.
As the number of local forestry workers decreases due to an aging population and a lack of successors, Takano Forestry aims to sustainably maintain forests while increasing safety and productivity.
“We want to grow sturdy trees that are uniform in thickness, just like the trees our grandfathers grew.
This case study introduces the sustainability story of Takano Forestry, which is a company of people who visited the mountains with their grandfathers during childhood and now want to pass on those same mountains to the younger generation.

For sustaining local forest resources

In order for forests to demonstrate their various values, we must create healthy forests through appropriate planting, nursing, and thinning. In particular, in artificial forests, the spacing between trees narrows as they grow. This makes it difficult for sunlight and nutrients to reach the trees. Thinning is essential to address this issue. However, Japan’s mountains are steep and have a large amount of complex topography which making it risky for people to work there. From an early stage, Takano Forestry has been promoting mechanization aimed at reducing manual labor as much as possible, improving safety, increasing productivity, and properly maintaining local forests. Machines perform a series of tasks such as felling trees, clearing branches, cutting the felled trees into logs, and loading logs onto trucks. The introduction of machinery has increased productivity and has also had safety benefits such as reducing injuries during work.

The unique fulfillment of interacting with nature through forestry work

- Cultivating young people who will lead the next generation -

“As machines continue to evolve, they are capable of performing more and more tasks,” explains Tesshin Takano, vice president of Takano Forestry. “Our company wants to raise awareness in regard to the many interesting machines used in forestry.” In order to sustainably develop local forestry businesses, Takano Forestry is working to cultivate young leaders.
Working on sites with steep slopes and unstable ground is unsafe. Therefore, in addition to experience in operating machinery, workers also need experience in regard to the overall site. For example, they must know where to build foundations for the machines, and where to fell trees in order to ensure safety and efficiency. There is a great sense of accomplishment upon completing work at a difficult site. Each employee has a goal of taking care of a certain mountain by themselves. For this reason, the company culture creates the impression that Takano Forestry has naturally gravitated toward a system that supports employees by working together on a daily basis, refining their skills, and giving them a sense of fulfillment.
They are also actively creating opportunities for people to learn about forestry, such as disseminating information about forestry work through social media, accepting interns, and holding mushroom cultivation experiences for kindergarten students.

 

高野 真弦氏 有限会社高野林業 代表取締役
木は育つまで何十年と掛かりますから、林業自体がサスティナブルな仕事です。今、間伐している木が、私の同級生という感じで、自分が年をとった時にやっと伐倒できるくらいの年月が掛かりますね。 機械化を進め、生産性を高めて山を守っていく、という原動力は、山と機械が好きだからだと思います。

Mechanization is the key to sustainable forestry business

It is said that one way to increase productivity is to generate logs which are easy to trade. However, it is extremely difficult to make logs that sell at the highest price from trees that have different thicknesses and curves. The forest harvester machinery introduced by Takano Forestry is equipped with a system to generate the optimal logs. The machine guides and supports the optimal length based on the thickness, length, diameter, and curve of the tree. In other words, the operator can contribute to improved productivity simply by cutting according to the position where the attachment automatically stops. As the number of forestry workers decreases, the number of forests that cannot be managed will increase and the value of forests will decrease, unless we use machinery to heighten the productivity of each worker. Based on their strong conviction of smoothly and sustainably performing the requested management of mountain forests, Takano Forestry is considering the introduction of forestry machinery that will further increase productivity. By providing our products and solutions, Hitachi Construction Machinery is working to realize a sustainable society together with Takano Forestry, which is taking on the challenge of maintaining highly-productive forest management in order to leave healthy forests for future generations.