. The forest area of Japan -covers 68% (25,100,000 tha*) of the total land area, 732% (8,070,0C0ha) of - which is owned by the State, . 11% (2,840,000ha) is pub- _lic property and 57% (14,- 190,000 ha) is possessed by private forest owners. The growing stock is 1,- - 900,000,000 cu. m, and the _ratio of the national and pri- _vate forests are nearly fifty- fifty. © - Cutting volume is 25,000,- 000 cu.m., in the national for- est and 50,000,000 cu.m. in the private forest each year. Particularly in the national forest, over-cutting has al- teady taken place as much _as twofold over the growing tate at the request of the ‘paper-pulp monopolistic cap- ital. _ So, the flood disasters caused by over-cutting have of my S | ; a logging term. worsened the calamities from the typhoons that attack Ja- jan regularly each year. Concerning the _ timber, industry there are about 25,- 000 sawmills and 4,000 chip manufacturers throughout the country; however, the majority of them are medium or small sized enterprises and are inclined to suffer from bankruptcy which stems from economic depression and im- portation of foreign products according to the Government policy of free trade. As to the forestry workers, there are about 130,000 workers employed through- out the year in the national forest and beside them, the workers who work in the private forest and those who work mainly at saw-mills or other mills concerned are about 400,000 in number respectively. JAPAN'S FOREST AREA Among the workers men- tioned above, almost all the workers in State owned for- ests are organized into the National Forestry Workers’ Union of Japan, the ZEN- RIN-YA, and the great part of the rest of the workers are scarcely organized. But 20% of saw-mill work- ers and 10% of workers in private forests are organized into their own union respec- tively. The working conditions concerned are generally bad, especially the employment situation is precarious, taking the workers in State owned forests for example, about 70% of them are temporary or daily wage workers and are not given even ordinary social benefits. (*ha — hectare is 2.471 acres ). LEAVING A LODGE for their working site, almost all the sites are secluded far away Be among the mountains that the workers have to live separated from their family during > 4 HOUSEWIVES would not take it any longer and claimed for protection of the standard | of living for all situation that the labour conditions have deteriorated and commodity . -Prices have doubled, endangering the life of workers. The photo shows that they urge iy the head of the Forestry Agency to abolish the unequality in the treatment and raise [" the wages on a large scale. - THE MEMBERS of ZEN-RIN-YA mobilized from every part of the country attended the Central Rally against undesirable amendment of the Unemployment Insurance Law. THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER PILING up logs at a timber yard. THE FORESTRY WORKERS in Japan are now suffering from the vocational disease “HAKURO-BYO or WHITE WAXENING DISEASE” caused by excessive ultilization of automatic saws which is a kind of Mr. Reynaud disease in its symptom and in its dangerous influences to the blood pressure and heart. The name of the disease “HAKURO- BYO or White waxening disease” stems from the symptom that turns wholesome fingers into stiff and white ones just like white wax candles with pain, numbness and paralysis of sensibilities. At its worst, all parts of the arms become impossible to bend. At last the National Personnel Authority designated the HAKURO-BYO as one of the legal vocational diseases, in July last year. IN THEIR 20 km parade for protest against the war policy and rationalization, ZEN-RIN-YA members made effective appeals with their placards for extinction of the HAKURO- BYO and the conditions that are inferior enough to pro- duce the disease. THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING between ZEN-RIN-YA (left) and the Forest Agency Authorities (right) is going on in the presence of observers who are mobilized for wage raising.