Does anyone here have any experience with or knowledge of the logging industry?

6 comments

1. My friend was a logger in Wakayama (he is now a lawyer, interesting career path)…he said the pay was absymal, like 140,000 a month max and less if it rained. One of the most dangerous job to boot. He said many of the guys doing it actually had some land so that they could make money from the lumber as well…

   I would think getting into the trade side would be where the actual money is, but maybe a natural resources/forestry degree would be useful.

2. I’m not involved in the industry at all in Japan, but I was back home in Aus. My 2¥ is don’t go near it. The only reason to get involved is if you have a personal connection to the job. It’s hard. It wears you out . You will break something (no matter how careful you are, something will move one day and you’ll be in the recieving end) and then you’ll be off without pay until it gets good enough to go back to work. I get the feeling. I totally understand the whole working outside thing. I love it too, but forestry is not a lucrative market for the workers, just the owners. Now I’m just some random Redditor, so take my opinions with a whole bag of salt, but I wouldn’t go back to forestry without the promise of some sort of life changing amount of money.

3. I know English teaching sucks but being a foreigner working in the logging industry just sounds insane haha.

4. I’m not a logger but I do kikori and climb. Most of the jobs I do are in difficult or dangerous locations so they need to be climbed and cut little by little from the top and lowered or ziplined down. It is a dangerous job but it’s incredibly fun. Pay is much better than those in the logging industry.

5. I know hotate fishermen in Hokkaido make bank. Maybe you could check that out instead?

6. As long as you translate the lumberjack song by Monty Python and sing it everyday you should be fine.