The Japanese Fisheries Agency revised the country’s Fishery Act considerably in December 2018. In leading up to its enforcement in two year’s time, challenges and perspectives were discussed from the viewpoints of academia, NGO and fisher.
Under the amended Fishery Act, the central government will take responsibility for enforcing catch regulations, which had been carried out voluntarily by fishers. Additionally, resource management based on MSY (Maximum Sustainable Yield: maximum catch that can be harvested sustainably) will be maintained; species managed based on TAC (Total Allowable Catch: catch limit set for individual fishery) will be expanded beyond the seven species currently managed under TAC; and IQ (Individual Quota) will be applied to individual fishers. These methods have been implemented in countries around the world, resulting in the recovery of resources and growth of fishery industries. However, the catch volume will decrease temporarily. Furthermore, shifting from a partially optimized management system — developed over many years of coordination between various interests — to a completely optimized management system has garnered confusion, as well.
Dr. Toshio Katsukawa, associate professor at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology’s Office of Liaison and Cooperative Research, has been working together in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture with the local government and a fishermen organization called Fisherman Japan. In 2019, Dr. Katsukawa began organizing workshops that brought together local fishers, seafood processors and distributors that are usually in conflict with one another at the local auction house. By providing a workshop that was not designed to force any immediate solutions but instead offering a space for stakeholders that otherwise do not have contact opportunities for multi-faceted dialogue, many participants voiced their support of continuing those kinds of discussions. Dr. Katsukawa states: “Even though FIshery Law reform is a top-down process, there is a need to center the designing process of the policies around the people on the ground because every fishing port and fishery type have differing situations. A model in which government officials make decisions internally with select experts will no longer work. The consensus building process in Japan must change in a way where draft proposals are shared with those on the ground to be debated and offered chances to provide input.”
Katsushi Kuwamura, who is a squid fisher in the Munakata Fisheries Cooperative, pointed out the high number of ships allocated to “Other Fisheries,” which is left over after the tonnage for the TAC is divided up by the reformed Fishery Act, from the perspective of coastal fisheries. 95% of Japan’s fisheries are independently-owned, and these fisheries, which are mainly coastal fisheries that use vessels, account for one-fourth of the national catch, despite their small scale. Within these small slots, “individual allotments are nothing short of impossible and ultimately result in an inevitable competition to see who comes first.”
Kawamura, however, believes that reforms are necessary to revitalize Japan’s coastal fisheries and have been analyzing catch record data of Japanese horse mackerel to evaluate the challenges in implementing TAC regulations. He calculated average catch volume shares for each management classification throughout Japan’s waters and set a “Virtual TAC” with the lowest fishing pressure determined by Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency. He found that regions with low catch share allotment exceeded its limit as soon as fish stock arrived in the region. Kawamura mentions, “if it is possible to offset the limits due to differences between locales, measures such as batch management can be implemented for regions with low catch share volumes. It is important to identify issues by visualizing the situation and conducting deep-dive analysis of each issue one-by-one.”
After emphasizing that trust is the basis for the bottom-up approach, Kawamura added that “there exists a customary self-governing aspect in regions where community members regularly see each other in person, and coastal fishery communities are concerned that the reform will disrupt the order that has been established within their community.” He summarized by stating that “applying the traditional methods of prefectural government, fisheries cooperative associations and fishermen within the new framework will lead to development of trust.”
Kazuhiko Otsuka, Japan Director of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Ocean Program, presented challenges faced by Japan’s unique set-net fisheries — an industry that provides a stable means of employment for fishers with production volume that make up 40% of the nation’s coastal fishery sector. Despite Japan having some of the world’s richest fishing grounds, many species not managed under TAC have stock abundance levels that are less than half of MSY, averaging at 70% of MSY level altogether. Species certified under MSC certification (which, as of 2018, make up 15% of global catch volume) lean heavily toward whitefish, shellfish and salmon species. Small migratory fish and squid species, main target species for set net fisheries, are low in certification ratio. In fact, set net fisheries are deemed difficult to be certified in general under the current certification scheme because they are a “passive fisheries” that target multiple species due to its limited target selectivity.
Given those circumstances, EDF partnered with universities, businesses and NGOs to launch the “Sustainable Set-Net Fisheries Project” and currently developing a guideline to improve selectivity of set-net fisheries based on various case studies. Plans are in place to work with MSC to provide feedback to the certification scheme based on their finding, as well as working with retailer AEON to engage in projects to raise consumer awareness regarding seafood sustainability. “Although set-net fisheries have been existing in Japan for over 400 years, we hope to objectively evaluate the fishing method and be able to proudly call it sustainable”, states Otsuka.
Wakao Hanaoka of Seafood Legacy closed the session with a hopeful remark: “We can together lead Japan’s fisheries reform to success if each of us consider ourselves as key players in this movement and take action.”
Wakao Hanaoka
Facilitator
Seafood Legacy Founder/CEO
After working in marine conservation in the Maldives and Malaysia, Wakao joined Greenpeace Japan as a Senior Ocean Campaigner, where he started the Sustainable Seafood Market Project. Later, Wakao founded Seafood Legacy in Tokyo in 2015, to build Japan-centric solutions for seafood sustainability by addressing the importance of domestic business-led initiatives to create a driving force for regulatory reforms.
・Expert Advisor of the Cabinet Office Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform Fishery Working Group
・Committee Member of the Fishery Agency Wide Sea-area Fisheries Adjustment Commission
・Steering board member of Global Sustainable Seafood Initiatives (GSSI)
・Recipient of 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Champion Award Leadership Category
Toshio Katsukawa
Speaker
Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology Associate Professor
Dr. Toshio Katsukawa is an associate professor at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. He graduated Ph.D. from University of Tokyo. He worked as assistant professor at University of Tokyo, and as associate professor for Mie University. His current research focus is reform of Japanese fisheries based on sustainable resource use. He received Award of Excellence for a Scientific Paper of Japanese Society of Fisheries Science, and Achievement Award for Young Scientists in Fisheries Science of Japanese Society of Fisheries Science.
Katsushi Kuwamura
Speaker
Munakata Fishery Cooperative Member Squid Fishermen
Born in 1967, Fukuoka Prefecture. Completed master's course at Department of Fisheries, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University. In April 1993, commenced fisheries administration and test research as fisheries engineer for Fukuoka Prefecture. Retired in March, 2013, then joined fishing industry in April of the same year as medium-scale roudhall fishery crew in the Kanezaki Fishery Cooperative (present-day Munakata Fishery Cooperative) in Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture. Since April 2014, has been self-employed as a member of the association. Is currently continuing to fish while exploring how to practice fishery resource management, marine environment conservation, and improvement to fishery management from the viewpoint of someone in the field, using own experience as material.
Kazuhiko Otsuka
Speaker
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Japan Director, Oceans
Kazu Otsuka is a practical solution builder of sustainable fisheries that align conservation with the business of fishing. As the Japan lead of the EDF’s Ocean program, Kazu is responsible for conducting collaborative research, growing diverse partnerships and building technical capacity to bring lasting stability to fisheries resources in Japan.
Prior to joining EDF, he worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group, specializing in partnership coalition, corporate transformation, and business development. He received B.S. in Geology and Mineralogy at Kyoto University and Ph. D. in Geology and Geophysics from Yale University. He teaches at the Department of Food Production and Environmental Management, Faculty of Agriculture of Iwate University.