Fishing Industry—Japan
Japan's fishing industry is divided into four types: coastal fishing, distant-water fishing, aquaculture, and recreational fishing. Coastal fishing of various species has continued since the country's premodern era, whereas distant-water fishing beyond its present exclusive economic zones (EEZ) started around the 1920s and increased dramatically during the food shortage of the immediate post–World War II period. Aquaculture has long been another feature of the Japanese fishing industry, the oldest form being the farming of seaweed. Japan's recreational fishing industry is probably the largest in volume of sales and most diverse in the world, including everything from charter boat businesses and equipment and bait production and sales, to various fee-based fishing park operations.
The coastal fishing sector has been characterized mainly by small-scale independent boat owners organized into township fishery cooperatives that collectively deal with wholesale fish dealers. Japan's coastal fishing has suffered since the 1970s from both depletion of resources and the lack of successors. In recent years, the removal of trade barriers on fishery products and the reduction of government subsidies to the fishing industry have also forced coastal fishermen to change careers. Japanese trading companies and supermarket chains have bypassed the wholesale dealers, thereby increasingly challenging the hierarchically organized domestic fish distribution networks of the cooperatives.
Since the late 1970s, distant-water fishing has experienced the twin blows of unilateral proclamations by many coastal states of 200-nautical mile fishery zones and the adoption of the EEZ concept in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982. Coastal states' extended control over fishery resources in adjacent seas reduced Japan's free access to distant-water fish stocks.
UNCLOS also laid the legal foundations for the management of anadromous species (species that travel between fresh water and sea, such as salmon). Jurisdiction for the management of such species was given to the coastal states in whose rivers such species originated. Japan's offshore salmon fishing ceased as negotiations with the then Soviet Union failed. Highly migratory species (such as tuna) were placed under joint management by coastal states, which resulted in the imposition of international catch quotas and regulations on tuna fishing practices. Japan is a member of all such international tuna management bodies. According to the GGT Newsletter of 25 March 1999, the number of Japanese tuna boats declined from about 1150 in 1980 to 661 in 1997.
Japan's major fishing companies have transformed themselves into trading companies dealing in fishery products and have invested in the fishing industries of other countries. The high costs of operating Japanbased ships contributed to this trend. Retired tuna boats have been sold to owners in other countries, who in turn have registered their boats in countries such as Taiwan and Korea that do not belong to the international management bodies. The "flag-of-convenience"
Two sea bass fishing boats in Tokyo Bay in 1994. (MICHAEL S. YAMASHITA/CORBIS)fishing operations by these boat owners continue to supply tuna to the Japanese market through the trading companies. Japan's Fishery Agency and the Fishery Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consider access to distant-water fishery resources a matter of national security, and work jointly to defend the sustainable use of fishery resources in international waters against both unmanaged "pirate" fishing and dogmatic conservationists.
The declining coastal fishing industry is being replaced by aquaculture. Japan has a long history of aquaculture, from the farming of seaweed, pearl, and carp to more modern fish farming of yellowtail, snapper, jack mackerel, flat fish, and eel. In addition, coastal waters have been stocked with farm-raised juvenile snapper, flat fish, crayfish, abalone, and other species, to be later harvested. This has created conflicts between professional and recreational fishermen, the latter being accused of stealing and free riding. The aquaculture industry has suffered from the growth of toxic planktons and algae caused by nutrient-rich household wastewater. The industry has also been accused of destroying reef ecosystems with organic wastes from fish feed. Consumers are increasingly alarmed by the industry's use of antibiotics in fish feed.
The recreational fishing industry is growing fast. While recreational fishing in general has been considered an activity for older males, several developments have gradually altered this perception. American bass fishing using artificial lures has become popular with a large number of younger Japanese, and increasing social independence and disposable income have contributed to the rising numbers of women in recreational fishing. Charter boat businesses provide exclusive charter, casual booking, and nonbooked individual services, targeting various species of fish. Operators of such businesses have joined environmentalists in opposing various land reclamation projects.
Japanese-made fishing equipment enjoys worldwide popularity. Computer-based high technology (using computer-assisted design techniques as well as microcomputers in fishing reels) and basic composite material are lavishly applied to reels and rods, and countless minor fishing devices have been patented.
Japan's fishing industry, like many other industries, is going through a major transformation to achieve higher added value. The era of fishing as a primary and commodity industry is passing, and the growing industrial aquaculture, manufacture of recreational fishing gear, and fishing-related services characterize the diversifying Japanese fishing industry.
Further Reading
Akaha, Tsuneo. (1985) Japan in Global Ocean Politics. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press and Law of the Sea Institute, University of Hawaii.
Asada, Yohoji. (1983) Fishery Management in Japan. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Bergin, Anthony. (1991) Japan's Distant Water Tuna Fisheries: Retrospect and Prospect. Hobart, Tasmania, Australia: Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (1999) Marine Ranching: Global Perspectives with Emphasis on the Japanese Experience. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Howell, David Luke. (1995) Capitalism from Within: Economy, Society, and the State in a Japanese Fishery. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Mottet, Madelon Green. (1981) Enhancement of the Marine Environment for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Japan. Olympia, WA: State of Washington, Department of Fisheries.
Ruddle, Kenneth. (1987) Administration and Conflict Management in Japanese Coastal Fisheries. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
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