Paper short abstract:

The 2018 fisheries reform aims to turn Japanese fisheries into a growth sector with a resource management system that is based on international standards. The paper examines the genesis of the reform and analyses, based on the concept of policy diffusion, where the policy content came from.

Paper long abstract:

Coastal fisheries in Japan have been in decline since the early 1990s. Situated mostly in rural areas, fishing communities suffer from depopulation and ageing. Stagnating production levels, decreasing demand and rising imports have led to income insecurities, further deterring young people to enter the industry. Policy makers and fishermen alike have been struggling to find solutions for this complex mix of challenges.

This paper analyses the 2018 reform of the Japanese fisheries policy, focusing on the revision of the resource management system. Aim of the reform is to turn Japanese fisheries back into a growth sector supported by an effective use of marine resources, this being also part of wider efforts to revitalise the primary sector under the Abe administration. Heart of the reform was a substantial revision of the Fisheries Law, establishing a new resource management system consisting of Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and Individual Quota. Management decisions are to be based on sound scientific evaluation and methods that are considered international standard, such as the Maximum Sustainable Yield. Furthermore, fishery rights, governing the use of resources in coastal waters, have also been restructured. These revisions have met with critique by coastal fishermen and some fishery experts, who fear that small-scale fishermen will be pushed out by capital-based private enterprises.

While current research is interested in possible outcomes of the reform, this paper examines how the reform came to be and where the policy ideas manifested in the reform stemmed from. Why reform now? Why choose this management system of TAC and quota and aspire towards "international standards"? Why, in effect, reverse the post-war reforms trying to usher in capital-based enterprises and scaling up of fishery operations in coastal waters?

Based on a document analysis and interviews with stakeholders and experts and using the concept of policy diffusion, I argue that neoliberal ideas and questions of legitimacy in the international community formed those policy decisions in the sphere of modern fisheries policy.