Procuring Japanese seafood is becoming increasingly difficult due to declining resources, rising seawater temperatures due to climate change, increasing global demand, and currency exchange rate fluctuations. How can we sustainably increase domestic seafood production to maintain a stable supply? The fisheries industry newspaper the Daily Minato held a roundtable discussion titled “Sustainable Fisheries Conference” on December 6th of 2024in Tokyo, featuring three participants: Masaru Ikemi, President of Maruha Nichiro; Shingo Hamada, President of Nissui; and Takeshi Mori, Director-General of the Fisheries Agency. The leaders of the two major seafood companies and the fisheries administration discussed measures to make the domestic fisheries industry more sustainable, looking ahead to the next 10 years. They also heard requests from the private sector and the government.

(Titles omitted in the text, Moderator: Akiyoshi Ukida, General Manager of the Daily Minato  and Director of Minato-Yamaguchi)

Mr. Ikemi of Maruha Nichiro, Mr. Hamada of Nissui, and Mr. Mori, Director General of the Fisheries Agency, discuss the challenges facing Japan’s fisheries industry in resource management and future prospects; discuss the need to expand TAC, improve the accuracy of resource assessment, and increase budgets; and explore measures to develop a sustainable fishing industry.

Maruha Nichiro’s CEO, Mr. Ikemi, Nissui’s CEO, Mr. Hamada, and Director General of the Fisheries Agency, Mr. Mori, discusses the challenges facing Japan’s fisheries industry in resource management and future prospects; discusses the need to expand TAC, improve the accuracy of fish stock assessment, and increase budgets; and explore measures to develop a sustainable fishing industry.

This feature is reprinted from the January 30, 2025 issue of  the Daily Minato.

[Part1]Fish Stock Management: Maruha Nichiro CEO, Ikemi “Budget and Personnel Needed for Research”

The first topic of discussion was “fish stock management.”

Q: Overseas demand for seafood is increasing, and Japan can no longer procure imported seafood as it once did.

Ikemi: Japan has been in a long period of deflation, and people can no longer afford expensive items. For example, the Chilean sea bass, which Japan used to purchase in large quantities, is now flowing to the United States and China and no longer comes to Japan at all. Inbound tourists say, “Japan is cheap,” and eating the same food costs more than three times as much overseas as in Japan.

Given Japan’s current economic situation, purchasing seafood from overseas will become increasingly difficult. Therefore, securing the domestic production of natural and farmed fish is necessary.

Hamada: The weak yen is also a significant factor, but above all, the background is the increasing global demand for seafood. Fish is recognized as healthier than livestock meat, and people worldwide have begun to eat fish. The African octopus, which Japan used to lead in purchases, is now mostly taken to Southern Europe. It is not impossible to buy it with money, but even if we bring it in at a high price, it will not sell in Japan. The impact of Japan’s deflation is also significant. To cover this, increasing domestic aquaculture and fisheries production is necessary to ensure a stable supply of Japanese seafood. However, the Japanese fisheries industry still has many old systems, and it is essential to change them fundamentally. The public and private sectors, including fishermen, should engage in more dialogue.

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Q: The government, triggered by the revised Fisheries Act enacted in December 2018, shifted to a management system based on TAC (Total Allowable Catch = catch quota) for fish resource management. In 2020, it formulated a roadmap for promoting resource management. It set a policy to bring 80% of catches under TAC management, but the expansion of TAC-targeted fish species has not necessarily progressed as initially planned. Various reasons have been pointed out, such as “scientific knowledge is insufficient” and “the reality of Japanese fisheries is complex.” Do you think fish resource management based on TAC is necessary to increase Japanese fisheries production?

Ikemi and Hamada: Of course. We should expand the scope of TAC further.

Q: What measures has the Fisheries Agency taken based on the revised Fisheries Act?

Mori: The government has been expanding the resources subject to TAC management in line with the “Roadmap for Promoting New Fish Resource Management” (hereinafter referred to as the Resource Management Roadmap) formulated in 2020. Specifically, the number of fish species subject to resource assessment has been expanded from 50 to 192 by the end of the fiscal year 2023, and the number of resources subject to assessment has been expanded from 18 resources of 8 species to 47 of 27 species. Furthermore, the addition of one stock of red sea bream, two stocks of Japanese anchovy, and yellowtail from April 2025 is planned. Individual catch quotas (IQ) have also been introduced for 11 fishing methods and resources in fisheries managed by the Minister.

Resource management needs to combine output controls that limit catches with input controls like limitation for operating days and technical controls like restriction for types of fishing gear.

However, because traditional input and technical controls alone may not be sufficient due to improved ship performance and fishing technology, the revised Fisheries Act is based on quantitative management based on TAC.

At the 2024 annual Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting, we won a significant increase in the Pacific bluefin tuna quota, resulting from Japan’s fisheries stakeholders’ collaboration on strict fish resource management. It is important to spread these success stories to other fish species and work together throughout Japan.

Now that resources are changing due to environmental changes, fish resource management is necessary to ensure sustainable use.

Ikemi: I think the Fisheries Agency’s Resource Management Roadmap is well made. If I may make a request, I would like you to further improve the accuracy of fish stock assessments, which are the basis for TAC and fish stock management agreements. Please allocate more budget to resource assessment, increase personnel for that purpose, and introduce equipment to acquire more accurate data.

Scientific analysis of the causes of resource decline is necessary. It is best to follow scientific assessments based on proper data. Japanese coastal fisheries catch a wide variety of fish species, and there are many individual operators, so it may be challenging to introduce fish stock management (based on TAC). However, in modern times, innovative technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence) have advanced, and it should be possible to identify fish species and sizes just by looking at images.

I hope that fisheries’ stakeholders will provide accurate data and entrust resource management surveys to the government.

 Hamada: Improving the accuracy of resource management and surveys is an urgent issue. The Fisheries Agency’s policies and efforts are moving forward, but they can do more to improve the accuracy of resource assessments. The current TAC calculation uses survey data from about two years ago, which is inaccurate, and the survey itself is not sufficient. There should be ways to improve survey accuracy by using private fish-finder data. First, I would like the budget for resource surveys to be increased.

The fisheries budget needs to be reorganized to make the Japanese fisheries industry grow. While port maintenance and other aspects are essential, I would like more of the budget allocated to resource surveys and research. The budget is less than in different countries.

In addition, we must strengthen monitoring for resource manageened. For example, individual catch quotas (IQ) should be allocated to medium—and small-sized purse seine vessels, observers on board, or VMS (satellite vessel position measurement transmitter) installed on large and medium-sized purse seine vessels should be attached to small coastal vessels.

Also, data on various resources along the Japanese coast are not listed in FishSource, an international resource assessment database. Publicizing and appealing to Japan’s resource status in English overseas may increase international credibility in the sustainability of Japanese seafood and increase exports of domestic seafood.

Mori : Thank you for your rigorous comments. Improving resource assessment accuracy is an issue that needs to be addressed. To improve the accuracy of resource assessments and increase credibility in resource assessments, the Fisheries Agency and research institutes need to work harder to expand data collection with the cooperation of fishermen, utilize the latest data, enhance resource assessment models, and improve resource assessment levels by using ICT (information and communication technology) and AI.

Catch Data

Hamada: At the Fisheries Agency’s stakeholder meetings (study group on resource management policies), clear explanations that fishermen can understand are necessary. I have the impression that a sufficient relationship of trust has not been built between the Fisheries Agency, the Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA), and fishermen. While valuing fishermen’s self-management, can we create a Japanese version of the resource management system together with fishermen?

Mori : At stakeholder meetings, opinions have been raised about a large gap between the scientific resource assessment results and the fishermen’s perceptions. We have also been unable to collect enough data, and we recognize that fishermen’s trust in research institutions is still low.

The “New Roadmap for Promoting Resource Management,” published in March 2024, outlines a policy of collecting crucial biological information and marine environmental data. We are working to connect the latest data as much as possible to assessment and management. We are also conducting peer reviews by experts from overseas research institutions on the FRA’s resource assessment methods.

To bridge the gap, we are also considering utilizing quantitative fish-finder data for resource assessment through collaboration between subsidiarie under both companies and research institutions. We would appreciate your cooperation in using various data in the future.

the Fisheries Agency Director-General, Mori

Ikemi: It may be legally difficult, but can we mandate all fishermen to submit data such as catch volume by fish species and fish body size? “Growth overfishing,” which catches small fish before they mature, leads to resource depletion. Can we improve the accuracy of catch data?

Mori: Under the system, catch record reports must be submitted. Although it may be difficult to mandate catch volume reports by fish species and fish body size immediately due to the burden on fishermen and distributors, it is necessary to consider ways to increase data that can accurately grasp the actual situation of marine resources while promoting DX (digital transformation).

Hamada:  In the case of the Nissui Group, fishermen are more proactive in providing fisheries data. There is a situation where “there are fish in the fishing grounds but the catch quota is small” for some fish species, and to resolve this, fishermen are calling for “fish finder data to be used for fish stock management.” If fishermen understand that there are benefits, I think the gap between the government and researchers will be closed quickly.

Mori: The Fisheries Agency, modeled after the US Marine Resources Education Program (MREP) study group, held its first study group on resource management with fishermen, researchers, and government officials in July 2024. Efforts to bridge the understanding gap between these stakeholders will become increasingly important. When the Fisheries Agency sent a resource management official to the US in 2024, it took decades to bridge the perception gap between fishermen and researchers in the US. We will respond with urgency in Japan.

Hamada: For example, if ITQ (Individual Transferable Quotas) is introduced, fishermen can trade their quotas, and fishermen with insufficient quotas can be accommodated with excess quotas. Such a flexible system can achieve more efficient operations while resolving dissatisfaction at fishing sites.