Noboru Jahanaʼs Struggle for Minchiminboku at Somayama Timber Forests (2)

Noboru Jahana pioneered a modern social movement in Okinawa. In Okinawa in the Meiji era (1868-1912), somayama forests (mountain forests co-managed by villages or the like for producing timber) began to be cultivated as part of relief measures for poverty-stricken samurai families who could no longer receive salaries after the Ryūkyū Kingdom was abolished in the Ryūkyū Disposition. Noboru Jahana, an engineer and high-ranking official of the Okinawa prefectural government, promoted a somayama cultivation project as chief acting director working under Shigeru Narahara, the governor of Okinawa. In the course of a subsequent project for dividing land into government-owned land and private land, the latent conflict between Jahana and Narahara gradually became apparent. Narahara and those siding with him deceived farmers under the slogan of Kanchiminboku, an idea for mixed-ownership forests, whereby forestland would be owned by the state, while farmers would have the right to use the stumpage on the land. The rift between Jahana and Narahara became clear when Narahara overrode resistance from farmers and implemented policies for incorporating somayama forests into government-owned land. In protest against Narahara, Jahana advocated Minchiminboku, an assertion that somayama and its stumpage should be jointly owned by farmers because they had been collaborating in growing, protecting and using timber. Jahanaʼs idea of Minchiminboku eventually failed. Jahana insisted that somayama forests, which were grown, managed and protected by farmers, also should provide farmers with a way to make a living and thus that these forests should be jointly owned by farmers. When we think of the current forest policy gridlock and the critical situation of national forests, Jahanaʼs Minchiminboku seems to offer many ideas for solutions to various problems. His idea undoubtedly has major implications for how people nowadays, who regard forests as global-level public goods, see their environment. This paper traces the history of Jahanaʼs struggle for Minchiminboku and considers the significance of Minchiminboku from the viewpoint of contemporary environmental theory or environmental thought.