Summary of the Report for the International Seminar on Goho-Wood 2012 (Part 1)(Wood supplier’s side)）

Name

Hideaki Kurihara

Title

Director of Technical Group Department

Organization nameKarimoku Furniture Inc.

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Brief introduction of the organization(1) Overview of the International Development Association of the Furniture Industry of Japan, which
we are joining
The International Development Association of the Furniture Industry of Japan was established inApril 2010 by merging the former Japan Export Furniture Manufacturer’s Association establishedin May 1957 with the Federation of Japan Furniture Manufacturer's Association established inFebruary 1964.
Membership mainly consists of furniture manufacturers, distributors, designers, etc.
The main purpose is to contribute to the improvement of the cultural aspects of national life and toboost the trading sector by facilitating the globalization and development/promotion of thefurniture industry.
Currently consists of 51 regular member companies/organizations and 15 supporting member
companies, a total of 66 corporations/organizations.

(2) Introduction of Karimoku Furniture Inc.
In April 2010, Kariya Mokuzai Kogyo Co., Ltd (established in 1947) and Krimoku Furniture Inc.
(established in 1968) were merged to become Karimoku Furniture Inc., which functions as theheadquarters of the Karimoku Group.
Located in Aichi Prefecture, and engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of wooden
furniture. Annual turnover: 21 billion yen (business results in FY2011) 890 employees (as ofApril 2012)
The whole group consists of 5 manufacturing companies and 4 materials factories for the supply ofwood. The business department of the group operates a manufacturing and wholesale business with27 sales offices and 19 showrooms.

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Outline of measures to utilize Goho-wood(1) Utilization of “parawood”
As one of the measures for promoting Goho-wood and reducing environmental problems, we31

established a materials factory in Malaysia in 1988 to produce furniture using “parawood” fromrubber tree plantations on a short cycle.
Though "parawood" which already tapped natural rubber, used to be left unused and mainly
disposed of by being burnt as waste, we were able to treat it with our technology, in order to utilize
it as a material for furniture, and develop, manufacture, and distribute the resulting parawood
furniture products.
(2) Activities as a Goho-wood supplierIn 2006, certificates for Goho-wood were made obligatory by revision of the Green Purchasing
Law, and since then, our company has begun to prepare or issue Goho-wood certificates for ourproducts,with authorization from the International Development Association of the Furniture
Industry of Japan. We conduct separate management of the company, prepare the certificate fromthe previous process, and issue our certificate for Goho-wood as a chain of guarantee to customers.
We treated a total of 4,697,607 ㎥ of Goho-wood in FY2011.
(MTCC2: 592,485 ㎥, RPP1: 276,101 ㎥, PEFC: 654,948 ㎥, FSC: 126,498 ㎥, and company
authorization: 47,575 ㎥)(3) Measures for forest certified wood
Last year, we obtained COC certification as part of the FSC/PEFC forest certification process, andin this fiscal year, we are releasing and promoting PEFC certificated products to ordinary users andcustomers at exhibitions etc.
At the IFFT (International Furniture Fair Tokyo) held the other day, we exhibited FSC certificatedproducts, though as part of a reference exhibition.
From now, we are intending to proceed with measures to promote Goho-wood to contribute to thedemand for forest certificated products as a company.

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Background of the measures for promoting Goho-wood

Knowledge of Goho-wood has increased since 2006 when the measures for promoting unti- illegal
logging began, based on the domestic Green Purchasing Law.
Though the Green Purchasing Law applies to only public works and facilities, the response rate tothese measures seems to be increasing with high awareness among domestic materials manufacturers.
We consider that such national measures we are conducting for public works and facilities as an
ordinary company on a regular basis will lead to a succession of measures in the future for ordinary
consumers, and also lead to environmental conservation and observance of the law.
However, the degree of acceptance and recognition of Goho-wood in the Green Purchasing Law is, infact, still low among ordinary consumers.

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Request to the supply side

Some supply side companies still do not or cannot obtain authorization for Goho-wood suppliers, sothat formal certification according to the domestic Green Purchasing Law cannot currently be provided
in some cases.
Also, in regard to imported wood materials from overseas, the measures taken in each countries aredifferent and sometimes complicated, Sometimes we cannot obtain certification for some woodmaterials we treat, especially from China, because the have a wider variety of tree types.
Unified measures, marks, and seals like that of the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) may
be convenient.
Though we are promoting the domestic consumption of domestic wood such as Japanese cedar andcypress, we still greatly rely on imported wood from overseas, so it is expected that Goho-woodcertification measures will be expanded within Japan and overseas by establishing the circumstances
for facilitating the issuance of Goho-wood certification to imported wood.

Since we, on the demand side, producing the products, are also suppliers to ordinary consumers,
we are expected to prepare measures to ultimately ensure that all materials we treat isGoho-wood.
In order to realize the situation above, it is required, in particular, to explore methods for
authorizing the materials and suppliers that find it difficult to obtain certification by elaborating
detailed confirmation steps and procedures.
Also for imported wood, since the measures are different from country to country, it is necessary
to apply simpler nationwide measures such as unified standards, certification methods,standardized certificates, marks, and seals to the imported wood to cope with illegally loggedwood.
It is important and necessary to provide details of measures in each importing/exporting country,
since the knowledge of the measures being applied in the countries exporting wood to Japan are
indispensable for us.
If possible, it is desirable to create a system to issue Goho-wood certification using a simpler way
without requiring a special certificate.

5 Challenges and problems to be solved
As already mentioned above, it is necessary to work with the companies concerned to establish
measures so that all materials are Goho-wood.
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As for our own efforts, we will implement measures to respond to demand from the national
government, customers, and ordinary consumers by carefully examining and checking the woodmaterials whether they are applicable to Goho-wood.
By establishing COC certificated products under the forest certification process, we will also makeefforts to promote Goho-wood and its certification system while focusing on COC certificatedproducts.

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