Homebuilders across Japan are now building more than three in five new homes in wood, with 39,392 of the 63,974 homes started in August built in timber. That is according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which released the figures yesterday, recording a fifth straight monthly rise in starts.
“Continued substitution towards domestically sourced species is projected to pressure import lumber demand,” Canfor wrote in its second-quarter outlook, with the Vancouver group reporting Japanese buyers moving to home-grown species. Japan imported 1.64 million cubic metres of sawn timber in the first half, down 13 per cent on a year earlier, the Forestry Agency found.
Shipments from the European Union fell 10 per cent to 936,000 cubic metres, and those from Canada fell 13 per cent to 322,000 cubic metres. Russian sawn timber dropped 23 per cent to 231,000 cubic metres, whilst Japan’s own sawmills shipped 5 per cent less at 3.72 million cubic metres.
“The declines were partially offset by relative market share gains in 2×4 and wooden housing,” Shawn Lawlor wrote in his year-end report, with the Canada Wood Japan managing director describing a year when starts fell 6.5 per cent. That left wood with 58.6 per cent of the 740,667 homes the Ministry recorded across 2025, up from 57.1 per cent the year before.
As it stands, the two-by-four trade built on imported lumber is still going backwards, with starts down 0.9 per cent to 7,724 in August for a third straight monthly fall. In an April report, Lawlor counted domestic two-by-four lumber output up 33.9 per cent in 2025 to 112,610 cubic metres, with Japanese housing companies specifying more sugi over imported spruce-pine-fir.
Japan started 89,802 homes in March last year, the month before the Building Standards Act revision took effect, and just 43,237 in May. Starts have since outrun those months, up 33.9 per cent on a year earlier in May and 18.6 per cent in June, easing to 6.1 per cent in August.
Wood’s gains have run into this year, with wooden starts up 5.8 per cent to 215,821 in the first half and other structures down 6.3 per cent to 147,992. Most of that wood goes into houses, with 26,243 of the 28,246 detached homes started in August built in timber, along with 5,090 of the 6,107 terraced homes.
“Pre-cut construction cuts manufacturing house frames from more than 40 days to just 1.5 days,” Yuichi Shinohara said at Timber Construct in Melbourne last year, with the Shinohara Group fabricating more than 4,000 timber frames a year. The managing director said the group was looking for the right local supply partner to bring its pre-cut technology to Australia.
It comes as four Japanese sugi and hinoki suppliers present to Australian builders in Melbourne on Monday, with Japan’s fiscal year to March finishing at 711,171 starts, the lowest in the Ministry’s series back to 2000. Japanese owners already start just under 30 per cent of the homes built by Australia’s 20 largest builders, led by Sumitomo Forestry’s Metricon, the country’s largest builder.
Sumitomo Forestry has named Australia and North America as the markets to make up the shortfall at home, with its Australian housing profit up 72 per cent in the six months to June. The Ministry publishes its September figures at the end of the month, with its seasonally adjusted annual rate already down for a second month at 753,000 homes.
- To explore Japan’s pre-cut model and whether it could work in Australia, click here for an exclusive look inside a Japanese factory builder.
