KASAHARA; JAPANESE DISTANT-WATER FISHERIES 



catches will be absorbed in Korean domestic 

 markets. However, the Korean operators might 

 try to export some of their catches to Japan or 

 even develop their own surimi industry. 



Further liberalization is in order for the im- 

 port of products from South Korean coastal fish- 

 eries. Pressure from the Japanese laver cul- 

 ture industry is so strong that the Japanese 

 government will not immediately relax restric- 

 tions on laver, but the present quota system for 

 non-aquaculture products will become rather 

 meaningless. 



Another important item to be reconsidered is 

 herring and herring roe. After the collapse of 

 Japanese herring fisheries (Kasahara, 1961), 

 domestic production of herring (mainly in Hok- 

 kaido) has become insignificant. Most of the 

 Japanese catch now comes from waters off the 

 coast of the Soviet Union and from the eastern 

 Bering Sea. To meet part of the demand for 

 herring roe and a dried herring product called 

 "migaki," herring has been imported mainly 

 from the Soviet Union either through transship- 

 ment on Soviet fishing grounds or as frozen her- 

 ring. A small amount of frozen herring has also 

 been imported from Alaska. A separate quota 

 has applied to herring roe, the price of which is 

 extremely high in Japan. Japanese companies 

 initially had difficulties in teaching people in 

 Alaska and Canada how to process herring roe, 

 but the business is now firmly established along 

 the coast from Alaska to the State of Washing- 

 ton. Importation of herring has been done 

 through the Federation of Hokkaido Fishery Co- 

 operatives acting as sole import agent. This 

 system was adopted originally to minimize ob- 

 jections from Hokkaido fishermen. Importation 

 of roe, on the other hand, is done by compa- 

 nies. 



Herring fishing off the Soviet coast is now 

 subject to severe restrictions under an agree- 

 ment concluded in 1971. The amount taken by 

 the mothership fishery in the eastern Bering 

 Sea is still limited. The Hokkaido herring stock 

 shows no sign of recovery. Import quotas are 

 still low, 8,000 tons for herring and 500 tons 

 for herring roe. The Japanese population is 

 suffering from a ridiculously high price of roe. 

 The present total consumption of herring pro- 



ducts is only a small fraction of what it used 

 to be before the collapse of the Japanese herring 

 fisheries. Except for protecting the vested in- 

 terest of Hokkaido fishermen, there is no social 

 or economic justification for continuing the pre- 

 sent system. Also questionable is an import 

 quota for West African cuttlefish. 



In addition to herring, most of the coastal 

 pelagic species are also on the IQ list, including 

 fresh, frozen, and most forms of processed pro- 

 ducts other than canned fish. Considering the 

 rather small catches of these species made in 

 the neighboring countries, I doubt that these re- 

 strictions have real significance. In short, it is 

 about time for Japan to reconsider all trade re- 

 strictions on fishery products with a view to fa- 

 cilitating their import, even at the expense of 

 the temporary suffering of some of the domestic 

 fisheries, for increased imports would be ben- 

 eficial to the population in general. There is 

 a real danger of many of the fishery products 

 becoming luxury items rather than main sources 

 of animal protein supply for the population. 

 This is already happening to a variety of prod- 

 ucts which were low- or medium-priced items 

 only 10 to 15 years ago. The rapid development 

 of a modern chicken industry in Japan, combined 

 with the liberalization of meat and poultry im- 

 ports, may make fishery products less and less 

 important as main sources of animal protein. 



Although the import quota system has been a 

 major obstacle to the expansion of fishery im- 

 ports, there are other problems also. The lack 

 of know-how to produce products suitable for 

 Japanese markets, for example, has made it dif- 

 ficult for many foreign countries to exploit ex- 

 port potentials. Except for such international 

 commodities as fish meal, frozen shrimp, tuna, 

 or canned fish, fishery products sold in Japan are 

 very specific as to the method of processing and 

 the quality of final products. The nature of the 

 difficulty is demonstrated by problems which 

 Japanese companies have encountered in the 

 process of developing salmon and herring roe 

 business in North America. In Peru, where an- 

 chovies are extremely abundant and cheap, no- 

 body even thought of developing export business 

 to exploit the Japanese market for boil-dried 

 anchovies ("niboshi"). In the Far East and 



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