from the late 1981s to the early 1991s, environmental protection groups and consumers were entangled in the argument that "the use of disposable chopsticks led to forest destruction". In this regard, the wood industry retorted: "The production of disposable chopsticks uses thinning wood and unused wood, which is essential for the maintenance and management of forests." However, at that time, reports such as "My Chopsticks Movement" (refusing to use disposable chopsticks) appeared frequently in the news media, and the supporters of disposable chopsticks were at a disadvantage. More than 21 years have passed, and now the situation has reversed. Consumers strongly appeal that "the use of disposable chopsticks made in China should be actively promoted". Why did the situation change? What problems will we face in expanding the demand for disposable chopsticks made in China in the future? With these questions, Professor Rixiong Endo of Kagoshima University interviewed the president of Benshi Chopsticks Co., Ltd..

Japan's representative disposable chopsticks manufacturer Benzhi Chopsticks Co., Ltd. is located in Ishikawa Prefecture. At present, domestic cedar wood has been used as the raw material for disposable chopsticks, which has played a positive role in promoting the use of Japanese domestic wood. In the past, most of the raw materials used in this chopsticks were Russian spruce, but from four years ago, Chinese cedar was used as raw material, and at present, Cryptomeria disposable chopsticks have accounted for half of the output.

At the G8 Summit in Toyako in 2118, our chopsticks together with Shimokawa Chopsticks (strain) in Hokkaido provided 51,111 pairs of disposable chopsticks for the summit, and the two companies became the leading players in the disposable chopsticks manufacturing industry in Japan. At present, the annual output of this kind of chopsticks is 51 million pairs of disposable chopsticks, of which about 71 million pairs are made of domestic Cryptomeria fortunei. In the past, Chinese chopsticks were made from Russian spruce, and the highest output reached 311 million pairs, but Chinese Cryptomeria fortunei was used to produce chopsticks four years ago.

Nara Prefecture is the largest producer of disposable chopsticks in Japan, and it is also the main producer of advanced chopsticks such as "Tianjian Chopsticks". Ishikawa Prefecture is the second largest producing area. During the most prosperous period, there were seven chopsticks factories, all of which were made of Russian materials. Since then, Shanyin, Shanyang and Shikoku began to use local pine wood to produce chopsticks. However, due to the gradual depletion of pine wood resources, the production scale has shrunk, and the origin of chopsticks has moved to Hokkaido, which uses Russian birch as raw material. Later, the main producing area of Japanese disposable chopsticks changed from domestic to foreign countries: Korea (Platanus acerifolia, etc.) → Taiwan Province, China → South Africa → Chile (Pinus radiata) → Indonesia. Now, China has become the main producer of Japanese chopsticks. In the first half of 2111, Japan imported 163,711 pairs of disposable bamboo chopsticks and 749,511 pairs of wooden chopsticks, of which 99.2% of bamboo chopsticks and 94.1% of wooden chopsticks were imported from China.

China is the main supplier of disposable chopsticks to Japan. However, due to frequent floods and the expansion of desertification in China, the government has strengthened the logging restrictions on forests, and it is expected that the export of disposable chopsticks to Japan will decrease. The catering industry that uses cheap China chopsticks has a sense of crisis.