Mini articles

It has been a long time since modern surface coatings replaced urushiol, the liquid from the urushi or Japanese lac tree (anacardiaceae), on which Japan had been traditionally dependent over centuries for the formulation of paints. Japan's surface coatings industry has grown quite steadily and its annual production reached 2.2 million metric tonnes in 1990, ranking second in the world after the USA which produced 5.4 million tonnes in the same year. Since 1990, production has been dropping, reflecting the worldwide economic downturn. Table I illustrates Japan's paints production for the period 1987–1992.