Sugi (Japanese cedar: Cryptomeria japonica) is the most important afforestation species in Japan. Its growing stock has been increasing year by year. Thus, development of new wood products made of sugi has been a national priority for more than two decades. Development of sugi structural glued laminated timber (glulam) was one of the responses to this push. However, in the 1990s, the Japanese glued laminated timber (GLT) industry did not accept sugi as a raw material for glulam, because several problems existed in the wood quality of sugi such as lower strength properties than those of the major imported species. This drawback spurred intensive research on sugi glulam in Japan. The results contributed to the significant revision of the Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) for GLT in 2008. The standard permitted the use of various new laminae and products such as a sugi composite GLT beams using different species of laminae with high modulus of elasticity. Although fireproof GLT is not part of the existing JAS for GLT, several fireproof laminated products with 1-h fireproofing performance have been developed since the Japanese Building Standards Law was revised in 2000.