voluntarily. Tlie subsidies are not only for the vessel 

 owners but are also for crew members who need 

 retraining for new jobs. 



The Japanese Government provided buyback/ 

 scrapping funding when Japanese fishing vessels were 

 forced to retire because of reductions in foreign 

 allocations until 1989. Compensation was paid to 

 affected vessel owners using supplementary budget 

 funds. On December 22, 1989, the Japanese cabinet 

 approved a new compensation system called "Measures 

 for International Fisheries Restructuring. " This system 

 was made available to vessel owners who are forced to 

 retire their vessels because of more stringent foreign 

 fishing regulations or quota reductions. 



Under this program, affected vessel owners 

 licensed by the MAFF can obtain compensation for 

 expenses from the national government, and the cost of 

 scrapping from the national and prefectural 

 governments (two-thirds national/one-third prefectural). 

 Vessel owners licensed by the prefectural government 

 can obtain compensation for expenses from the national 

 and prefectural governments (two-thirds national /one- 

 third prefectural), and the cost of scrapping on a 50-50 

 basis from the national and prefectural governments. 



There is also a "Provisional Measures Law for 

 Fishermen Losing Jobs Due to International 

 Agreements (Law Nimiber 94-1977)." Affected 

 fishermen can obtain benefits amounting to $1,300- 

 1 ,400 per month for a maximimi of two years from the 

 Labor Ministry until they find new employment. This 

 provisional law was scheduled to expire on June 30, 

 1993, but has been extended until June 1998. 



V. Vessel Exports 



As fishing has become less and less profitable for 

 Japanese fishing companies, more and more fishing 

 vessels have been exported to foreign countries. Since 

 Japanese shipyards are building fewer new fishing 

 vessels, the bulk of these exports are used fishing 

 vessels. In 1980, Japan exported 35 new vessels 

 (appendix DD), but by 1992 exported just 1 new vessel 

 (appendix LL). In contrast, Japan exported 86 used 

 fishing vessels in 1980, but by 1992 these exports 

 nearly doubled to 153 used vessels. 



Although many countries have purchased Japanese 

 fishing vessels, the most significant customers have 

 been China and the flag-of-convenience nations 

 (appendix MM). Between 1985 and 1992, China 

 purchased a total of 89 vessels, averaging 515GRT. A 

 good number of these vessels are probably stem factory 

 trawlers engaged in distant-water operations in the 

 North Pacific and the eastern Atlantic Ocean off West 

 Africa. Among the flag- of-convenience nations, 

 Panama and Honduras purchased tlie lion's share of 

 used Japanese vessels. Panama has purchased 103 

 vessels, averaging 354GRT, while Honduras purchased 

 65 vessels, averaging 307 gross registered tons. Tlie 

 vast majority of these vessels are believed to be distant- 

 water tuna longliners, often owned by Taiwan 

 companies. 



The export of aging Japanese distant-water tuna 

 vessels to flag-of-convenience states has become a 

 source of great concern to the Japanese mna industry. 

 The primary reason for this concern is the fact that the 

 majority of these vessels are thought to be tuna 

 longliners which catch a considerable amount of 

 sashimi-grade tuna that is exported to the Japanese 

 market. These exports depress the potentially lucrative 

 Japanese sashimi market by lowering tuna prices. The 

 Japanese tuna industry estimates that approximately 

 200 reflagged tuna vessels are currently fishing, the 

 majority of which are registered in Panama and 

 Honduras (appendix NN). The Department of Defense 

 data indicate that many former Japan-flag vessels are 

 now flying foreign flags, the most notable of which 

 are: Panama-58 vessels, Honduras-26 vessels, and St. 

 Vincent-Grenadines- 13 vessels (appendix 00). 



The Japanese tuna industry estimates that Japanese 

 imports of frozen sashimi tuna caught by these 

 reflagged vessels increased from 27,000 t in 1989 to 

 39,000 t in 1991." This amounts to 1 1 percent of total 

 Japanese frozen sashimi tuna supplies, and 22 percent 

 of frozen sashimi tuna imports. Since the traditional 

 four suppliers of frozen tuna sashimi (Japan, the ROK, 

 Taiwan, and Indonesia) provide 88 percent of die total 

 supply, it is thought that the remaining supply consists 

 almost entirely of flag-of-convenience vessel-caught 

 product. The Japanese tuna industry speculates that the 

 majority of the reflagged vessels are managed by ROK, 

 Japanese, and Taiwan companies. 



To combat this trend, the major Japanese tuna 

 industry organization, NIKKATSUREN, has 

 established a $9 million fund to compensate Japanese 



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