Govt planting scheme ‘a mistake’

Reuters, The Straits Times, Monday 19 March 2001

TOKYO—Teacher Keiko Fujimagari has been a severe hay-fever sufferer since she moved to Tokyo 26 years ago.

She says the cedar-planting programme was a mistake and believes victims should receive help with their medical bills. She pays one-third of the cost of her antihistamine injections.

However, a Forestry Agency spokesman said the government had a sound reason for planting the trees.

After the war, much of the land was devastated and a lot of trees had been cut down for materials to build homes. Cedars grow quickly and they already existed all over Japan.