FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 2 



aspects. It emphasizes those fisheries the devel- 

 opment of which have had substantial effects on 

 international regulation of fisheries, except for 

 such passing references to other elements of the 

 industry as considered relevant.' 



One of the serious problems about writing an 

 English paper concerning Japanese fisheries is 

 that fishery institutions in Japan are extremely 

 complex and difficult to understand. It is al- 

 most impossible for foreigners to fully compre- 

 hend institutional aspects of the Japanese fishing 

 industry without having been in the country for 

 some time. English literature in this area is 

 meager. Yet, domestic institutions for fisheries 

 have had such tremendous effects on develop- 

 ment of all Japanese fisheries, including those 

 in distant waters, that it is often irrelevant to 

 discuss their problems without having some 

 understanding of the institutional framework in 

 which they operate. To obtain some general in- 

 formation on this aspect, the readers of this pa- 

 per are referred to four English papers: Oka, 

 Watanabe, and Hasegawa (1962), Kasahara 

 (1964), Comitini (1967), and Herrington 

 (1971). 



All high seas fisheries discussed in this paper 

 are rigidly regulated by what is called "the li- 

 censing system." The system controls the acti- 

 vities of each fishery through restrictions on the 

 total number of licenses to be issued, size of ves- 

 sels to be used, area of fishing, method of fishing, 

 and often species to be taken. Although the ac- 

 tual regulations under this system differ from 

 fishery to fishery, a common, and most important, 

 feature is direct control on the number and types 

 of vessels to be used for a particular fishery. 

 The justifications used by the government for 

 imposing the limited entry system on offshore 

 fisheries has varied. Among apparent objectives 



' The author excluded whaling from the present paper 

 due to lack of time. The history of the whaling industry 

 is a story of its own, and may better be dealt with as a 

 separate topic. Two nations, Japan and the Soviet 

 Union, are more responsible than others for the present 

 state of baleen whale stocks. Their recovery in the Ant- 

 arctic would take many years even with restrictions more 

 severe than tho.se currently enforced. The relative im- 

 portance of whaling in the Japane.se fishing industry has 

 decreased rapidly in recent years. While the omission 

 of the topic affects the comprehensiveness of first two 

 sections, its inclusion would not change greatly the sub- 

 stance of the last section. 



are: protection of inshore fisheries against off- 

 shore fishing, reduction of competition and pre- 

 vention of disputes between different groups of 

 offshore fishermen, stabilization of fishing con- 

 ditions, maintenance of profitability, conserva- 

 tion of resources, prevention of international 

 disputes, and others. Degree of success in 

 achieving these objectives has also differed from 

 case to case, but there is no question that the 

 system has served as a powerful and convenient 

 means to control each fishery and introduce such 

 changes as considered desirable by the Japanese 

 fishery administration.* 



Practically all offshore and distant-water fish- 

 eries discussed in this paper are regulated by 

 the central government. While legal authority 

 is vested in the Minister of Agriculture and For- 

 estry, the Fishery Agency (Suisancho) , which is 

 subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture and 

 Forestry, has in fact full power to control all 

 major fisheries. There still exist a large num- 

 ber of small fisheries regulated by the provincial 

 authorities, but they have practically no inter- 

 national implications, except those operating off 

 the southernmost part of the Kurile chain and 

 in Korean Straits. Chapter 3 of the Fishery 

 Law, as amended in 1963, provides that anyone 

 wishing to be engaged in any of so-called "des- 

 ignated fisheries" must be licensed by the Min- 

 ister of Agriculture and Forestry, and spells out 

 principles under which such licenses are issued. 

 Administrative ordinances specify the designat- 

 ed fisheries and the types of regulation under 

 which they operate. This category includes 

 practically all important fisheries carried out in 

 waters far from the home islands, as well as 

 the coastal trawl fisheries conducted by medium 

 vessels and purse-seine fisheries by medium and 



* Scholars in North America approach the question 

 of limited entry in fisheries mainly from the point of 

 view of economic efficiency. Application of limited en- 

 try in the Japanese fishery administration is based on 

 rnuch more diversified considerations. The transfera- 

 bility of licenses, which is an essential condition for 

 maintaining economic efficiency under this system, has 

 been subject to increasing constraints in Japan. While 

 the old fishery law established fishing rights as freely 

 transferable private properties, the new fishery law 

 (1949) specifically prohibited transfer. The new law 

 also prohibited in principle the transfer of licenses for 

 offshore fisheries; in reality licenses were still trans- 

 ferable in most cases; but the 1963 revision of the law 

 further restricted the transferability of licenses. 



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