INITIATION OF THE 

 REGULATORY SYSTEM 



Basic aspects of the system of limited entry 

 were set by a series of administrative ordi- 

 nances and laws passed during the Allied 

 Occupation of Japan. An administrative order 

 issued in July 1946 required registration of 

 all skipjack-tuna craft over 20 gross tons in 

 size as an aid to limit the operation of these 

 craft to areas designated by the Occupation 

 Government. ■■' An ordinance issued by the 

 Fisheries Agency in July 1947 brought these 

 craft under a formal licensing system and 

 forbade the construction of additional craft. 

 Licenses were issued to all owners of craft 

 over 20 tons for the gross tonnage of their 

 existing craft. An ordinance, issued in May 

 1949, regularized the licensing system, made 

 provision for building larger craft by combin- 

 ation of the licensed tonnage of two or more 

 craft, and limited the activities of craft en- 

 gaged in the skipjack-tuna fishery on a seasonal 

 basis. The essence of these ordinances were 

 all codified into a new basic fisheries law 

 passed by the National Diet in November 1949. 

 An important additional measure included in 

 the new law was that licenses, while issued 

 for periods of 5 years, had to be reissued to 

 the original holder or his heirs except in cases 

 of serious infraction of laws on the part of 

 the holder. It also created a new category of 

 fisheries, called Designated Distant Sea Fish- 

 eries, into which all skipjack-tuna craft of over 

 100 tons in size were placed. A separate fish- 

 eries protection law passed by the Diet in 1950 

 set a limit of 300 skipjack-tuna vessels in the 

 Designated Deep Sea category. 



Conditions were favorable to establishment 

 of the system during the few years over which 

 it evolved. The administrative order and the 

 basic regulatory law were established at a 

 time when profits from the fishery were low 

 or nonexistent. In the first years of the Occu- 

 pation, the Japanese were anything but prone 

 to resist rules issued in the name of the con- 

 quering powers. The fleet had been heavily 

 decimated during the war but recovery, with 

 encouragement of the Occupation Government, 

 1 



■* An excellent treatment of the rejjulatory system 

 as it developed up to 1962 appears in Masuda (1963). 

 All tonnage figures used hei-ein refer to metric tons. 



was rapid afterward. By the end of 1947, the 

 fleet had recovered to its approximate prewar 

 size and was more than adequate to hai-vest 

 I'esources within the area enclosed by the so- 

 called MacArthur Line.^ Catch per unit of 

 effort had fallen off rapidly with the increase 

 in numbers of craft and little opposition was 

 expressed to institution of the regulatory sys- 

 tem. Those who already owned craft in the 

 fishery, of course, stood to profit by limita- 

 tion of entry and supported it. The low rates 

 of return of the fishery discouraged outsiders 

 from protesting because entry was forbidden 

 to them. The system imposed no onerous re- 

 strictions on fishing effort, such as closed 

 seasons or closed areas within the fishing 

 grounds available to the fleet. It appears to 

 have been accepted fairly readily by the fishing 

 community and functioned without change 

 until near the end of the Occupation in April 

 1952. 



Several factors were put forth to support 

 imposition of the system during its develop- 

 ment. However, the main motivations for estab- 

 lishment of the limited entry system centered 

 on conditions in the fishery at the time, not 

 on the condition of the resource. That is to 

 say, conservation or management of the re- 

 source was not a real issue. It was an issue 

 and an important one in controlling entry 

 into the East China Sea trawl fishery which 

 was placed under a limited entry system at 

 the same time as the skipjack-tuna fishery. 

 Concern growing out of the serious overfishing 

 by the East China Sea fleet undoubtedly in- 

 fluenced the lawmakers in their decision to 

 bring the skipjack-tuna fleet under control 

 and to limit the number of vessels over 100 

 tons to 300. However, the skipjack-tuna fleet 

 exploited species that migrated over great 

 distances and showed no signs of depletion 

 from year to year because of overfishing in 

 waters off Japan used by the fleet. Sufficient 

 fish might not be available to support the 

 fleet during that part of their migration that 

 made them available to the Japanese fleet, 



■* The MacArthur Line, as the line bounding the area 

 open to Japanese fisheries that was established by the 

 Occupation Government came to be known, originally 

 included only the waters within 12 miles of Japan. 

 However, it was gradually expanded eastward and south- 

 ward and by 1950. included most of the traditional 

 Japanese skipjack and tuna ground in the northwest 

 quadrant of the Pacific. 



147 



