**Acknowledgements**

*Biotechnological Applications of Biomass*

ing World War II, an average of 50 million m3

*Experiment of harvesting willow trees using a sugarcane harvester.*

Short rotation woody coppices (SRWC) have a huge potential. Before and dur-

felled and harvested for energy use in the form of charcoal and firewood in Japan. The annual available amount of naturally regenerated broad-leaved trees used as SRWC is estimated to be 9 million dry-t/y [7]. The energy utilization of SRWC has already begun within the framework of the FIT. Moreover, the development of short rotation forestry in abandoned farmlands may be worth considering. Commercial willow plantations have been cultivated for bioenergy purposes in Sweden since the 1980s, and around 16,000 ha of short rotation willow plantations were established domestically from 1986 to 2000 [19]. In 2006, about 8,000 ha of the first commercial willow biomass crops in North America were started in upstate New York [20]. Growing and harvesting willow trees aimed at short rotation forestry was experimented with in northern Japan. A sugarcane harvester that was used in southern Japan was applied for harvesting willows during its agricultural off-season (**Figure 23**) [21]. The harvesting (growing, cutting, collecting,

and comminuting) cost of SRWC was calculated as 136 USD/dry-t [22].

In this chapter, the current situation of forests and forestry as well as woody biomass utilization in Japan was described, and the future outlook for the use of forest biomass in Japan was presented. As a result, the following conclusions were

1.Many planted forests are now becoming mature, so the operational efficiency in forestry should be improved not only by the development of the forest infra-

2.The Kyoto Protocol adopted in 1997 promoted the energy utilization of waste woody biomass such as mill residues and wood-based waste materials, and

structure but also by the full mechanization of the logging system;

/y of naturally regenerated forest was

**144**

drawn:

**Figure 23.**

**6. Conclusions**

This chapter was financially supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP20K06121.
