Neo-liberal reforms in Japan's tuna fisheries? A history of government-business relations in a food-producing sector

Abstract

Neo-liberalism refers to a public policy mix that is market oriented, pro-trade liberalization and advocates minimal state intervention in the economy. Japanese governance has arguably not been based on neo-liberal principles, and some see this as contributing to Japan's long-running recession. In 2001 Prime Minister Koizumi came to power promising neo-liberal reform. This paper presents a history of government involvement in the distant-water tuna longline industry and looks for evidence of neo-liberal reforms in fisheries, in terms both of observable changes to governance and of key stakeholders' receptiveness to neo-liberalism as visible in their representations of issues facing tuna fisheries. We find no evidence of neo-liberal reforms in this sector, and that key stakeholders show little sympathy with neo-liberal policy prescriptions, meaning they are unlikely to champion such reforms. This conclusion may be specific to fisheries since in Japan the political importance of food production and the iconic status of fish cuisine make the sector particularly susceptible to economic and cultural nationalism. In examining relations between industry and government the paper also highlights problems in Japan's co-management of fisheries.

Keywords:

• Japan
• economic reform
• fisheries
• economic nationalism
• cultural nationalism

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The paper was drafted while Kate Barclay was an AusAID postdoctoral fellow at the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University, and an earlier version of the paper appeared in a collection of papers from a research workshop jointly hosted by the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, and the University of Technology Sydney. Thanks to Keiko Morita, Winton Higgins, Seamus McElroy, Quentin Grafton, Rowena Ward, Damien Spry, Rowena Ward and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts.

Kate Barclay is a senior lecturer in Japan Studies at the Institute for International Studies, University of Technology, Sydney. Her work focuses on the social, political and economic aspects of fisheries in the Asia Pacific region. Previous works on Japanese fisheries include A Japanese Joint Venture in the Pacific: Foreign Bodies in Tinned Tuna (Routledge 2008). Her current projects include a modern history of fisheries interactions in northeast Asia.

Sun-Hui Koh is an associate researcher in the Institute for International Studies, University of Technology, Sydney. Her early work revolved around life histories of migrants from Jeju Island (South Korea) living in Japan. More recently she has been researching ethnic Korean populations in China and fisheries-related aspects of the Japanese imperial era.

Notes

^a ‘Tuna’ includes swordfish.

^b ‘Mackerel’ includes horse mackerel.

^c The figures for 1943 and 1944 were exactly the same in the original, probably indicating that one year has been transposed to the other, so 1943 and 1944 have been merged in this table.

^d The totals in this table are not precise sums of numbers in columns to the left. These totals have been copied verbation from the source material, which does not indicate why the totals are larger than the listed amounts. The likely reason is that the totals include other fish species in addition to those listed.

^a This includes vessels of all sizes, and includes vessels engaged in trolling.

^a The exchange rates of the yen increased greatly over this period; from 1976 USD$1 = JPY Y = 305 to 1987 USD$1 = JPY Y = 158.

^b The numbers in parentheses are from Fushuku (1989), the rest are from Kagoshima Ken Katsuo Maguro Gyogyō Kyōdō Kumiai (2000). We have distinguished the two sources this way because there are large discrepancies between the two sets of figures. Fushuku's original source is company records from Seto Suisan. Kagoshima Ken Katsuo Maguro Gyogyō Kyōdō Kumiai's figures are based on their own records. One possible explanation for the discrepancy is that although both sources list types of vessel as enyō maguro (distant-water tuna) the criteria for this category may have varied between these two organizations. Despite the discrepancy raising questions about the reliability of the figures, we have included this table to indicate roughly the relative status of Kushikino as a tuna port in Japan.

^c The numbers of vessels listed here are much lower than those listed for the same period by Miyabe et al. (2004) in Table 2. This is odd since the figures in Table 2 are only for longliners and trolling vessels operating in the Pacific Ocean, while the figures here are for all gear types in all distant-water fishing grounds, so should be greater. Miyabe et al. based their figures on annual catch statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries. Kagoshima Ken Katsuo Maguro Gyogyō Kyōdō Kumiai based their figures on numbers of licenses issued by the Japan Fisheries Agency, under the same Ministry.

1. ‘Neo-liberalism’ is an imperfect term for many reasons, including the fact that, rather than being a new form of liberalism, it mixes strands of liberalism with strands of conservatism. Furthermore, people who espouse neo-liberal tenets do not usually apply the term to themselves; indeed, it is often used (pejoratively) by opponents of neo-liberalism. However, it is the only available term for this style of governance, and is widely used in political economy literature.

2. When senior officials retire they are banned from taking positions in the private sector proper for two years, but they are allowed to take up positions in gaikaku dantai corporations/organizations, which gives them a continued income until they can move on to the private sector proper, or they may stay in the gaikaku dantai.

3. All prices and exchange rates in this paper are historical.

4. In Japanese the FILP is Zaisei Tōyūshi Keikaku, or Zaitō FILP money comes not from taxation revenue, but from the post office savings account pool, to which the Japanese government has access for spending on public projects and programs. The FILP is immense; it has long been the largest savings pool in the world. Because it is so commonly used for government spending the FILP is also called the ‘second budget’.

5. The legislation for regulating imports is the 1996 Law on Special Measures for the Promotion of the Conservation and Management of Tuna Stocks, also called the Tuna Management Act.

6. Various Australian tuna fishing and aquaculture company owners interviewed in 2002–3.

7. Suzuki had originally studied fisheries at college, and then worked in organizations connected to the fishing industry until entering politics in 1947. He was the Minister of MAFF for several years in the 1970s, before becoming Prime Minister in 1980.

8. This was according to Kagoshima Kengyoren (the prefectural level between the municipal Gyokyō and the national peak body Zengyoren) officials during a fisheries study tour organized by the Kagoshima University Marine Social Science Department for visiting scholars from Indonesia and the Philippines, 19–21 November 1998.

9. Machizukuri, literally ‘town-making’, is a local government activity (often funded by the national government in rural areas) aimed at generating a communal sense of place and belonging. It involves slogans, public buildings and events such as festivals.

10. Sato Yasuo's reply to authors' question in a panel discussion on vessel buy-backs as a fisheries management tool during the biennial conference of the International Institute of Fisheries, Economics and Trade in Tokyo, July 2004.

11. For a thorough examination of the politics of Japanese agriculture see Mulgan (2000).

12. According to MAFF (2003) Japan imports 60 per cent of its food supplies, measured in caloric intake. In the 1970s Japan was the world's largest seafood exporter, by 2001 Japan had become the world's largest seafood importer, with 23 per cent in value and 14 per cent in volume of world production (JIFRS 2004).

13. According to Hirata (2004), opinion on whaling in MAFF is not unified, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs often disagrees with MAFF stances taken on whaling, but the pro-whaling group, led by Komatsu, is dominant and their agenda prevails. Komatsu's position vis-à-vis MAFF and MoFA on tuna issues is similar.

14. This style generates political capital in that domestic contesting voices can be devalued because they seem to be against the nation. Hirata (2004: 194) notes that the political device of framing issues as ‘us’ versus ‘them’ in the whaling dispute has helped marginalize domestic anti-whaling voices.

15. Quentin Grafton (March 2005 pers. comm.) has pointed out that Komatsu is not anti-globalization in terms of access for Japan's offshore and distant-water fleets. Indeed, since Japan's domestic fishing grounds are fully exploited, unless there is a major increase in aquaculture, his call for greater food self-sufficiency must logically mean additional Japanese fishing in overseas fishing grounds.

16. These comments were made by Komatsu in a panel discussion at the biennial conference of the International Institute for Fisheries Economics and Trade in Tokyo, July 2004.