Japan is situated in Asia.
However, its import share from Asian countries is only about 15 percent with the remainder imported world-wide. Structural changes of forest product imports in Japan Japan has been undergoing drastic changes in the structure of forest product imports in recent years. To be specific, the shift from logs to more value-added products is remarkable. The most important reason for the shift is the structural changes in production in the producing countries brought about by the movement toward environmental protection on a global scale and sustainable forest management. In Japan, in the meantime, the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 triggered increasing needs for earthquake-proof houses, and demand for engineered wood such as laminated wood is growing fast.