@cantoo that's interesting to know. For a long time (1970s-1990s) Japan shunned wood frame homes. One factor being earthquakes (steel/concrete supposedly stronger), the others reasons being the number of floors allowed (no more than 2 floors in Japan with wood), the reduced interest in private homes (it was an era of going condo) and the fact that wood molds easily in super humid Japan. Also, the fire risk is a major concern, especially in earthquakes (not necessarily ones own home, but for fire starting in a neighboring home when everything is so packed together)
But in the past 15 years wood construction has had bit of a return. Aside from seeing how strong it can be (US 2x4 methods are superior to what was happening in the post WW2 era Japan ...maybe you even helped letting people realize this), but new anti-mold methods are now available. And wood is way way cheaper than concrete/steel. Actually, as wood was so common pre-1980, a ridiculous amount of tree farms were planted back then, but never harvested. There is so much cedar and cyprus in the countryside now its become a problem in many ways (trees are becoming too big; half the country has now developed allergies to the pollen; the monoculture is bad for animals; the lack of demand and oversupply has made the trees almost worthless to the landowners). Cities now even subsidize material costs if someone chooses locally sourced wood in new builds.
As for me, I have a whole mountainside of cedar/cyprus around me which the owners let me use as I will (which is why I plan to start milling). If they ever want it harvested professionally it'll almost costs more to extract than for the price of the log (too mountainous). And even with renewed interest in wood homes happening , lumber sourced from Japan is still more expensive than stuff imported from New Zealand, Canada, or China. Actually, most Japanese trees are just ground up into pulp for tissues and notebooks.
