Forest Policy. 381 



(7.5%) and private property some 18 million (26%), 

 leaving 30 million for the State and for Imperial or 

 Crown forests (66%), the latter comprising some 5.5 

 million acres. 



These figures are liable to variation, due to sales of 

 the latter class, and to adjustments of the somewhat 

 obscure property rights. 



The ownership by the State and a conservative use of 

 the mountain forest is necessitated by the protective 

 value of the forest cover, the cultivation of the extensive 

 rice fields being dependent upon irrigation. 



2. Development of Forest Policy. 



The history of Japan dates back to 660 B. C, when 

 he empire was founded on the island of Kiushiu by the 

 warrior king Jimmuteno. He established a kind of 

 feudal government, with the daimios (knights or barons) 

 holding their fiefs from the mikado, who was considered 

 the sole owner of the soil, or at least all exercise of own- 

 ership rights emanating from him. Private property 

 seems then not to have existed at all, the people having 

 merely rights of user. Colonization of the islands 

 brought under the mikado's dominion progressed rap- 

 idly, and with it, not only arable portions but even 

 mountains were denuded. 



With the beginning of the Christian era the need of 

 better protection against floods seems to have been recog- 

 nized, and, in 270 A. D., we find the first forest official 

 appointed, a son of the royal house, who with assistants 

 was to regulate the use of the forest property, which, 

 under the rights of user granted by the mikado, was 

 being excessively exploited and devastated. 



86 



