About the Society

 The Japan Wood Research Society (JWRS) was founded in 1955. With Japan headed towards becoming a high-growth economy, members in the Japanese Forest Society launched JWRS to support the acceleration of science and technology around wood and forest products. According to its constitution, the JWRS mission is to promote academic research that contributes to the sustainable development of a renewable resources-based society.

 JWRS holds an annual national meeting in Japan, and publishes abstracts and CD-ROM based proceedings. The convention rotates among six sites, from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Our programming committee makes it possible to hold a convention in any location. In addition, the four regional branches of the JWRS (Hokkaido, Chubu, Chugoku-Shikoku, and Kyushu branches) offer regular regional meetings and workshops.

 JWRS members represent academic and forest product-related enterprises. The organization had 1,881 total members as of January, 2015: 1,322 regular members, 416 students, and 87 supporting members. The rest consist of 56 institutional members and 127 overseas members.

 JWRS’s official bilingual journal, Mokuzai Gakkaishi, was founded in 1955. In 1998, it was separated into two volumes: the Journal of Wood Science, the official English-language journal published by Springer Verlag; and, Mokuzai Gakkaishi, the official Japanese-language journal. Six issues of both journals are published annually.

 The society annually honors accomplished scientists with the JWRS award, and presents a promotion award to junior scientists, a technical award to engineers, and a contribution award to those who have tendered remarkable service to JWRS. Beginning in 2014, we began offering a special award for female graduate students for outstanding research and promise.

 Currently, working groups are active on 17 specific research areas. Each organizes seminars and lectures series, either independently or cooperatively. These groups are:  wood-water relations, anatomy and quality of wood, wood-based materials and timber engineering, biodeterioration, rheology, machining, extractives and utilization, chemical processing, pulp and paper, mushrooms, adhesion, wood and wood-based panel, wooden amenity, education, biomass conversion, wood culture and science, and utilization of domestic timbers.

 Noteworthy is the recent tie with the Japanese Forest Society, initiated in 2008 by the Presidents of the two associations, Nobuaki Hattori and Taizo Hogetsu. Joint activities include mutual invitation to respective annual meetings, joint organization of annual meetings (2013 at Morioka, Iwate Pref.), promotion of joint research, and so on.

 In 2015, in celebration of its 60th anniversary (Kanreki in Japanese means “reborn”), JWRS will strengthen partnerships between academics and industries to provide solutions for global environmental and resource problems, and to contribute to the sustainable development of human society.