FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 2 



and supplies. Political instability may make in- 

 vestments extremely risky. As long as the same 

 types of fishing can be carried out by their own 

 boats without heavy local investments, the Jap- 

 anese companies would prefer not to make com- 

 plicated arrangements with local firms or gov- 

 ernments, except for use of local facilities for 

 transshipment. 



A major exception in this regard is shrimping, 

 for most of the rich shrimp grounds are even now 

 within the limits of national jurisdiction of coast- 

 al states. The existence of excellent interna- 

 tional markets for shrimp makes joint ventures 

 attractive even under difficult local conditions. 

 A number of Japanese companies have recently 

 begun shrimping in the rich grounds of Indone- 

 sia, including West Irian. Live-bait fishing for 

 skipjack in areas far from the home islands is 

 another type of operation which has to be car- 

 ried out from local bases. Joint ventures with 

 Australia (from New Guinea) and Indonesia 

 (from West Irian) are now developing. Trans- 

 shipping of frozen tuna through foreign bases 

 is an essential part of the worldwide longline 

 fisheries. Trawl fishing vessels in the Atlantic 

 use Las Palmas and Cape Town as their main 

 bases of operation. 



The situation is changing, as more and more 

 nations are inclined to extend their national jur- 

 isdiction. Already, use of local facilities is a 

 condition for tuna fishing in the Banda Sea under 

 the Japan-Indonesia agreement, and the delivery 

 of catches by some vessels to local facilities is a 

 condition for fishing under the Japan-Mauritania 

 agreement. Payments are involved in both 

 cases. 



As far as the industry is concerned, fishing 

 with payments, without further local involve- 

 ment, might be preferable to other arrangements 

 in many cases. The industry could include the 

 amounts paid (if they are reasonable) in the 

 costs of products and charge them to consumers. 

 The main problem here is the official position of 

 the Japanese government concerning the ter- 

 ritorial sea and fishing jurisdiction. Payments 

 could still be made under other names than li- 

 censing fees; for example, as payments for use 

 of local facilities. The government of the coast- 

 al states, on the other hand, might not agree to 



such an arrangement which could weaken their 

 positions on jurisdiction. Since there are al- 

 ready precedents of this sort (Indonesia, Mau- 

 ritania, and Australia), however, this approach 

 may be used more widely in the future. 



Another direction in which the industry might 

 move is more direct investments in the prosper- 

 ous foreign fishing and processing industries. 

 The United States has gone far ahead of Japan 

 in this area. Japan now has a small interest in 

 the Peruvian fish meal industry. I do not quite 

 understand why some of the large Japanese trade 

 companies, which handle various fishery pro- 

 ducts, have not vigorously explored possibilities 

 of direct investment in foreign fishing industries. 

 The government used to discourage involvement 

 of Japanese firms in foreign fishing ventures for 

 fear of increasing competition with Japanese 

 fisheries. But the main reason may now be that 

 there are not many fisheries in foreign countries 

 which offer long-term returns comparable to 

 those expected from other industries, perhaps 

 with the exception of fish meal and shrimp op- 

 erations in some areas. 



Imports 



As shown in Figure 18, there has been a 

 marked increase in imports of fishery products 

 in the last 10 years, while exports have gener- 

 ally leveled off. For many years, however, the 

 Japanese government has imposed rather strict 

 restrictions on imports of fishery products, main- 

 ly based on two considerations: the balance of 

 payment and the competition with domestic 

 products. With the foreign exchange surplus 

 increasing at an almost embarrassing rate, the 

 balance of payment is no longer a problem. On 

 the contrary, pressure is mounting for the gov- 

 ernment to facilitate importation of many items 

 including food in general. Internationally, Ja- 

 pan has been urged by both developed nations 

 (including the United States) and developing 

 nations to relax trade restrictions. Also, the 

 government must explore all means to accelerate 

 foreign currency spending to reduce the rate of 

 increase in the surplus and slow down inflation. 

 Increased imports of food items are generally 

 considered desirable from this point of view. 



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