Implementing the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines: Lessons from Japan

Abstract

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently began the implementation phase of its Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (the SSF Guidelines). The SSF Guidelines emphasize food security, poverty reduction, and ecological sustainability. Japan is an industrialized nation with a relatively low poverty rate and good food security. Thus, what utility, if any, could the SSF Guidelines hold for Japan? And what lessons can the Japanese case provide for other nations around the world? Outsiders to fisheries may assume that developing countries are characterized by small-scale fisheries while industrialized nations have large-scale fleets and a minority of small-scale fishers. Yet fisheries in Japan are overwhelmingly small-scale and based in local communities with historic links to nearby coastal resources and characterized by strong local community culture, values, and identities, representing a way of life for these practitioners. With this reality in mind, this chapter focuses on three of the SSF Guidelines objectives for which Japan presents a positive case: sustainable fisheries management; equitable development in coastal communities; and the contribution of small-scale fisheries to an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable future. This chapter provides a brief overview of the history of Japanese coastal fisheries, with a special emphasis on the community-based management styles and how these sustain both cultural and environmental resources. The current challenges of Japanese coastal fisheries are also discussed, highlighting both lessons learned and potential challenges ahead for other nations as they work toward implementation of the SSF Guidelines.