Japan’s seafood industry is in a precarious position: the population is eating less fish, while its fishermen have been steadily catching less product for the last 20 years and a lot of what they are landing now could be considered unsustainable or irresponsibly caught. Indeed, the renowned fisheries scientist Dr. Toshio Katsukawa has estimated that as much as 90 percent of the Japanese catch is juvenile.
At the recent SeaWeb Seafood Summit 2016 (SWSS16) in Malta, Ana Chang of research consultancy Concept Hatchery, told delegates that in Japan even the iconic bluefin tuna is often caught so small that it sometimes ends up being used as fishmeal. This is happening in different fisheries all over the country, she said.
Chang added that while the captured fish have been getting younger, Japan’s fishermen are getting older and fewer in number – standing at a record low of 181,000 people, which is 18 percent less than five years ago. Furthermore, whereas 20 years ago, the Japanese population was eating 70kg of seafood per head – more than any other country in the world, today it’s at No. 3 (behind Portugal and Korea) with a per capita consumption of around 55kg.
With fewer fish in the water and less people eating it, younger generations aren’t wanting to go into the fishing industry and follow in their family footsteps, she said. Instead, they are seeking work in the cities. This is leading to massive depopulation of many fishing villages as well as a big decrease in fishing activity, which is proving a big problem for coastal economics.
There’s an escalating belief among the country’s seafood community that sustainability is a means of reconnecting people with this part of their cultural identity, and as SeafoodSource reported from SWSS16, the sector is seeing its first green shoots of change. This is being brought by a growing band of engaged Japanese people wanting a full grasp of the plight of their fishing industry, and crucially seeking insight from as many perspectives as possible in order to establish agreed-upon solutions.
There is increasing public support for responsible fisheries, confirmed Wakao Hanacka, managing director of Seafood Legacy, a consultancy group established last year to grow the seafood sustainability movement.
Hanacka also pointed to a number of important initiatives have been implemented in the market in the past 8 years, including the introduction of traceability elements in 2011, which was the same year that Greenpeace began rating the country’s supermarkets. More recently, some stores have stopped sourcing threatened species, including certain varieties of eel, and have also reduced the volumes of bluefin tuna that they sell.
In addition, NGOs are adding to the momentum by increasing their activity, he said.
Despite these positive efforts, this is still “a transition period,” said Hanacka, stressing that the seafood sustainability movement in Japan remains between 10 and 20 years behind many of the Western markets.
“We now need to see some fast change in Japan,” Hanacka said. “The situation has become critical.”
In terms of a target deadline for the seafood supply chain to get all its duck’s in a row, Tokyo will be hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics, when the world’s eyes will be on the host nation. There are high hopes that the sector would have made up considerable ground by the time the torch is lit.
“To achieve this, we need to build on current momentum, and bring the many stakeholders in Japan together and move forward,” said Yumie Kawashima of the Environmental and Social Contributions Department at Aeon, the largest retailer in the country.
“It’s important we all work to deliver swift change,” she said.
According to Yoshikatsu (“Yossea”) Ikuta, an eighth-generation tuna middleman at Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market, the Japanese government needs to take up a prominent role to ensure the sustainability agenda progresses.
He said Japan has been learning a lot from the sustainable seafood movements in the United States and Europe, but due to the cultural differences, it’s not possible to bring those strategies “as they stand” into Japan. Instead, the country needs to work out how best to cater these successes so they fit into Japan’s culture.
Because government is traditionally very highly respected and trusted by Japanese society, it’s very important that it creates policy, said Ikuta.
“We call government “those who are above,” almost like a deity, so when the government tells us consumers to do something, we act,” Ikuta said.
Ikuta reckons one of the biggest issues in Japan is that bluefin tuna continues to be caught during the spawning season and that this is the fault of the government for not regulating fishing during these periods. “We see this tuna on the market and we all think ‘what a waste,’” Ikuta said.
He explained that many people in the supply chain, including fishermen and middlemen like him, had long been aware of this problem as well as the catching of juveniles, but until quite recently they all turned a blind eye, thinking solutions would be found and the issues would go away. There is now much more knowledge and understanding in the industry, said Ikuta.
Hanacka fully agrees with Ikuta that policy change is imperative to opening up the Japanese market. He also stressed the importance of pursuing sustainability “proactively,” whereby people can engage, rather than attempting to force large-scale change.
“Even those politicians that understand the situation need to see some public [demand] to make action,” he said.
