In recent years, world-wide discussions on sustainable natural capital management, such as the nature-positive concept, have been rapidly expanding. However, Japan’s domestic forest policy has not been able to respond to these trends concerning natural capital, and the Japanese Forest Economics Society (JFES) has not been able to provide leadership in these discussions. Why has Japan’s forest policy and forest economics research fallen behind the global trends in sustainable natural capital management? This paper examines global trends in natural capital management and the direction of Japan’s natural capital management, while also considering the research trends in natural capital management within the JFES. Based on this analysis, the paper identifies the issues facing Japan’s natural capital management. Although the role of businesses is emphasized in natural capital, both Japan’s forest administration and forest economics researchers have failed to recognize forests as natural capital, which is why Japan has fallen behind the global trends in natural capital management. Based on these findings, the paper discusses the future challenges for domestic natural capital management.