ACCOMPLISHMENTS: ASIA 



Japan 



ROKUYA IMAZEKI 



Director. Division of Forest Protection, Government Forest 

 Experijnent Station, Meguro. Tokyo. Japan 



Many kinds of exotic trees, introduced from continental Asia. Eu- 

 rope. North America, and other countries, have been planted in Japan 

 during the past "<> or more years. Some of them were cultivated in 

 arboreta for merely botanical purposes, but others were planted in 

 various parts of the country on a larger scale for silvicultural exper- 

 iments. These experimental plantations, however, were prompted 

 simply for experiment's sake or sometimes for curiosity and, there- 

 fore, no systematized investigations have been carried out. 



After the war. the loss of forests in overseas colonies, the drain of 

 resources, and the greatly increased timber demand led to extreme 

 disorganization in timber supply and demand, and consequently the 

 policy of increasing timber production became the urgent problem 

 to be solved in Japanese forestry. Among ways of solving this prob- 

 lem, the introduction of exotic trees is considered promising and an 

 organized survey of existing plantations of exotic trees is considered 

 essential. 



At that time, the proposal on the cooperative international investi- 

 gation of the diseases of exotic trees was presented to Prof. X. Taka- 

 hasi. the former representative of the Working Group of Eastern Asia, 

 by Dr. A. Biraghi and Dr. J. R. Hansbrough. 



Though Prof. Takahashi did not specialize in forest pathology, he 

 had a profound comprehension of the importance of the forest disease 

 and pest problem as applying to future forestry in Japan. He visited 

 the Government Forest Experiment Station in Toyko in order to 

 deliberate this proposal with me and Dr. K. Ito. the chief of the 

 Section of Forest Pathology in our Division. Xeedless to say. there 

 could be no two opinions as to the advisability and urgency of the 

 matter, and we decided willingly to accept this proposal, and to 

 organize the Working Group of Eastern Asia. 



We recommended Prof. Takahashi as the representative of the 

 Working Group for the time being, and decided that the other two 

 should actively push forward the work. 



The first project undertaken by the Working Group was to carry 

 out a fundamental survey of the diseases and pests of exotic trees which 

 had been introduced into Japan to that time. 



In order to accomplish this as quickly as possible, it was very neces- 

 sary to ask for the help of plant pathologists and entomologists in the 

 agricultural field. Accordingly, we consulted with Prof. X. Hiratsuka 

 and others, who are mentioned below, and succeeded in organizing a 

 joint research group. The joint research was financially supported by 

 the Forestry Agency and started in the spring of 1950. working to a 

 3-year program. The members of this group are as follows: 



