# anybody know any thing about tree care in japan?



## nor cal firs (Feb 11, 2006)

im wondering because i cant find anything on the net.
but i was in japan and i saw sum guys using a bucket truck to trim some trees in hiroshima. but i have never seen or herd of climbers or how thay do big removal wen thay cant get a buket truck in there.


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## Kikori (Feb 11, 2006)

Most of the trees within the cities of Japan have already been cut down or reduced to an embarasing shaft that resembles a finely pruned poodle's tail. Some large trees do exist, but they are mostly located on the grounds of temples and shrines where development is prohibited. I lived in Japan for three years and I saw actual tree work taking place once. I guess you were lucky to witness some real tree work go down. There are obvious exceptions to my comments, but in general this has been my experience. 

Are you more inquiring about the possiblity of seeking out work in Japan as an arborist or tree worker?? I would guess this would be a real long shot. Western foreigner jobs in Japan are limited to English teacher, bartender, and a few other special cases. Language and culture barier play heavy. Don't let this comment discourage you though. Again, just relaying what I saw. Japan is a great place. Got any more questions?

p.s. did you go to the A-Bomb museum?


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## jmack (Feb 11, 2006)

*utility*



nor cal firs said:


> im wondering because i cant find anything on the net.
> but i was in japan and i saw sum guys using a bucket truck to trim some trees in hiroshima. but i have never seen or herd of climbers or how thay do big removal wen thay cant get a buket truck in there.


a few years back they were recruiting heaviliy for utility tree care japan , china, malaysia. haedhunters reached out, sounded like an adventure, let me know what turns up mean while i try to find the hunters firm j


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## jp hallman (Feb 11, 2006)

Isn't it in Japan where they hold the yearly ritual of sliding a huge log down a steep hill with 50-60 guys riding it!? Saw it on some TV show a year or so ago.
It's an honor to be on the log. Only the bravest men from each little town are picked. Then they "fight" amongst themselves for a front position. It's a big log! Perhaps they imported it from Oregon. Naaa, I seem to remember the ceremony of chopping it down, with axes.
It was great entertainment, would love to go see it in person.


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## TimberMcPherson (Feb 11, 2006)

From what I understand, jobs in japan have different classes. Arboricultural work is classed as very low as its dirty, outdoors and hard work. Its considered beneath most japanese. Hey always knew i was classless!


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## rebelman (Feb 11, 2006)

Weren't the masters in Japan teaching proper care and pruning thousands of years ago? Didn't they understand more about trees then than most americans now? Don't Japanese gardens show an advanced understanding? I remember reading that racism against the Japanese caused us to regress in uderstanding, because at the same time chainsaws enabled large flush cuts to become fashionable, whereas with hand saws and the Japanese school the point outside the collar had been the fashion. The american way ignores root zones completely also.


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## jmack (Feb 12, 2006)

*cheese*



jp hallman said:


> Isn't it in Japan where they hold the yearly ritual of sliding a huge log down a steep hill with 50-60 guys riding it!? Saw it on some TV show a year or so ago.
> It's an honor to be on the log. Only the bravest men from each little town are picked. Then they "fight" amongst themselves for a front position. It's a big log! Perhaps they imported it from Oregon. Naaa, I seem to remember the ceremony of chopping it down, with axes.
> It was great entertainment, would love to go see it in person.


yes and they chase cheese down hills in the uk and ride horseys down hills here in the good ole usa. however the question is tree care in japan.........


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## jp hallman (Feb 12, 2006)

You're correct. Did you read all of the posts? It was mentioned very few large trees exist in Japan. Could it be because they've been riding them downhill for years? Just a thought. Can't see where you've answered any questions.


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## nor cal firs (Feb 13, 2006)

Kikori said:


> Most of the trees within the cities of Japan have already been cut down or reduced to an embarasing shaft that resembles a finely pruned poodle's tail. Some large trees do exist, but they are mostly located on the grounds of temples and shrines where development is prohibited. I lived in Japan for three years and I saw actual tree work taking place once. I guess you were lucky to witness some real tree work go down. There are obvious exceptions to my comments, but in general this has been my experience.
> 
> Are you more inquiring about the possiblity of seeking out work in Japan as an arborist or tree worker?? I would guess this would be a real long shot. Western foreigner jobs in Japan are limited to English teacher, bartender, and a few other special cases. Language and culture barier play heavy. Don't let this comment discourage you though. Again, just relaying what I saw. Japan is a great place. Got any more questions?
> 
> p.s. did you go to the A-Bomb museum?



most citys i visited in japan did not have big trees.
but hiroshima did. the a-bomb museum is actualy were i saw the bucket truck working. and there wer big trees in the resadental area also. 
were in japan did you live? and did you teach english?
i love japan and i loved living there but i hated teaching english.
i wuld love to live there and do tree work. but like you say the aria i lived in (kushiro) had no need for tree work. but hiroshima looked like it i did.

i happend to be luky enuff to see the log riding event in person.
i was in nagoya and met a enthusiastic japanese person redy to etend the event the next day. thay invited me and i went. i had never herd of it before and it was insane! thay slid abot 4 logs and yelled and pounded drums between every log slide after the log and all the guys riding it flew down the hill thay carryed it thru the freazing cold river.
it was a grat event


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## nor cal firs (Feb 13, 2006)

Kikori said:


> Most of the trees within the cities of Japan have already been cut down or reduced to an embarasing shaft that resembles a finely pruned poodle's tail. Some large trees do exist, but they are mostly located on the grounds of temples and shrines where development is prohibited. I lived in Japan for three years and I saw actual tree work taking place once. I guess you were lucky to witness some real tree work go down. There are obvious exceptions to my comments, but in general this has been my experience.
> 
> Are you more inquiring about the possiblity of seeking out work in Japan as an arborist or tree worker?? I would guess this would be a real long shot. Western foreigner jobs in Japan are limited to English teacher, bartender, and a few other special cases. Language and culture barier play heavy. Don't let this comment discourage you though. Again, just relaying what I saw. Japan is a great place. Got any more questions?
> 
> p.s. did you go to the A-Bomb museum?



most citys i visited in japan did not have big trees.
but hiroshima did. the a-bomb museum is actualy were i saw the bucket truck working. and there wer big trees in the resadental area also. 
were in japan did you live? and did you teach english?
i love japan and i loved living there but i hated teaching english.
i wuld love to live there and do tree work. but like you say the aria i lived in (kushiro) had no need for tree work. but hiroshima looked like it i did.

i happend to be luky enuff to see the log riding event in person.
i was in nagoya and met a enthusiastic japanese person redy to etend the event the next day. thay invited me and i went. i had never herd of it before and it was insane! thay slid abot 4 logs and yelled and pounded drums between every log slide after the log and all the guys riding it flew down the hill thay carryed it thru the freazing cold river.
it was a grat event


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## jp hallman (Feb 13, 2006)

Great! Would be a hoot to see in person! Good friend of mine is a timber broker. He's been to Japan several times to get to know the people he's selling logs to. Many small "Mom and Pop" mills there so he tells me. They'll buy one log and work at it for a couple weeks. They don't waste a thing. Small bit of bark and sawdust when they're finished. If they'll buy Oregon timber must not be a whole lot of trees left.


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## clearance (Feb 13, 2006)

Nor Cal-Not trying to be a knob but how could there be any big trees in Horoshima, or Nagasaki for that matter. 60 years isn't enough to make a big tree.


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## jmack (Feb 16, 2006)

*ask*



jp hallman said:


> You're correct. Did you read all of the posts? It was mentioned very few large trees exist in Japan. Could it be because they've been riding them downhill for years? Just a thought. Can't see where you've answered any questions.


ask me


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## rich_h (Feb 17, 2006)

Having been to Japan twice I found lots of strange arboricultural practices. I'm not saying they are right or wrong, just very different than what we practice in the west. This first shot shows some of the huge stilt systems that I assume take the place of cables. You could find these things in all sorts of trees, but mainly in the rare few large ones located in Tokyo. There are some large trees in Tokyo but like stated earlier they are mainly on the temple grounds.


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## rich_h (Feb 17, 2006)

these next shots show some of the pruning practices that we saw in Kyoto. I would imagine that most of us would call this overpruning at worst and pollarding at best, but all things considered, if these trees were not pruned like this there is a good shot they wouldn't have any trees in the city.


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## rich_h (Feb 17, 2006)

Here are some shots of different methods of pruning Ginkgos in Japan. Both of these were taken in Tokyo. Notice the aerial roots on the larger one. I never saw that before or since.


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## rich_h (Feb 17, 2006)

This was my favorite part. We just happened to wander by a tree being removed in Tokyo at the Iranian Embassy. You couldnt find a chain saw anywhere. Is there a noise ordinance in Tokyo against the use of saws? Anyway, they had this big lobster claw looking thing that would just reach up and grab a hold on a limb and then ripppppp. It never cut the wood at all, just ripped it off the tree.


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## rich_h (Feb 17, 2006)

One great spot to see large trees in Japan is in Nikko. Not only do you travel through bamboo forests to get there , but once there the trees are just plain beautiful. Here are a few shots from there.


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## moss (Feb 17, 2006)

Nice photos Rich! Thanks for posting them. It looks like the lobsterclaw rig was being used for a take-down, yes? Doesn't look like a sustainable pruning method 

From what I know about about rec climbing in Japan technical tree climbing is a new idea over there. The traditional method is to construct scaffolding (bamboo?) to work in trees. 

This U.S. arborist does treework in Japan:
Midori Horticultural

-moss


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## Chris J. (Feb 17, 2006)

There's an AS member who lives in Japan, his AS handle is Stu in Tokyo. He has posted in the chainsaw forum about getting logs from tree services.


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## Kikori (Feb 17, 2006)

Good pix. Yeah those are good examples of Japanese pruning practices. They try to minimize the mass of the tree while still giving their citizes the impression that their cities have some resemblence of nature in them. I think one of the mantras the govertnment lives by is "if its natural, cover it in concrete." 

One more interesting tidbit of Japanese tree related trivia is that because of a lack of area to grow timber, the government implemented regulations that a large majority of the timber grown had to be of the most effiencet species. "Sugi" ceders are the main crop for Japanes timber farmers. Most of the tiber is grown on the side of mountains. The only problem with this practice is that this particular species of ceder releases a pollen in the spring that a large percentage of the population is allergic to. So the government is inderectly propogating the sufferage of its citizens during allergy season. 

nande daro? 
Kikori


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## Stu in Tokyo (Apr 4, 2006)

Really late getting in here guys....

I live in Tokyo, and they do really awful things here to trees that are beside the roads, REALLY awful.

Trees that are in parks and on temple grounds are much better taken care of. Near me, on the grounds of a Hospital is a VERY beautiful Big tree, it is stunning, and a tad rare.

The reasons they use the claw to tear down a tree are many. One is that this method is fairly easy, and anyone can do it, the next reason is they have real trouble finding anyone who knows how to use a chainsaw, also on the list of reasons is that the tree being removed is most likely in very poor shape, and if you felled in with a chainsaw, who knows where it might land, which brings up the last reason, there is not space to fell a tree.

Something else to consider is that even on the temple grounds or around the emperor's palace in the center of the city, there are not a lot of old trees. At the end of WWII Tokyo was firebombed and just about every thing went up like a torch, so finding old trees in Tokyo is hard to do. If you go out in the countryside, you see a lot of old trees on private property as well as in parks and at temples. 

Remember, Tokyo is NOT Japan.

Oh yeah, about the cedar trees, the story there is that the government did mandate the planting of the trees, as it was a huge cash crop, but over the years the logging industry has fallen off sharply, because it is way cheaper to just import the logs from Canada or the US. 

We saw a show on NHK tonight about this, they said that in 1952 there were 680,000 people directly involved in the logging industry in Japan, now there are less than 60,000 

They also said that in 1952 there were 17,000,000 hectares or forest in Japan, now there are 40,000,000 (sorry, the Japanese numbering is a little weird, I know the two numbers were 17 and 40 now, but I'm not sure it it was 170,000 or 1,700,000 or 17,000,000).

Because all of these stupid cedar trees were planted and they were expected to be a cash crop in 30 to 40 years we have this pollen problem, now a lot of the trees are in trouble, they have not be cared for, the plantings are much too dense, etc. etc.

They just about need a huge wild fire to balance things out.

Well, that is my two yen's worth.

Cheers!


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## trevmcrev (Apr 4, 2006)

Not Japan but........
In Singapore in Orchard rd which is the premium area in the city, like a rodeo drv beverly hills type of thing, i saw some interesting tree work going on.
Bucket truck older than me, no warning signage about, 2 guys wearing shorts and thongs(sandals?), no ppe, 1 ancient looking cahinsaw on the ground with the chain hanging down just about touching the ground, and the guy in the bucket doing all his pruning with a machete!
Was quite efficient though, one swipe and off comes a 5 foot long, 2" dia branch. Got video footage of it somewhere.

Trev


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