The fisheries industry may still provoke images of trawlers setting out to sea. But for big Japanese fish companies, those days are long gone. Over the past 40-plus years, they have adapted to changing regulations and a shrinking domestic market. In their latest transformation, they have become growers of bluefin tuna — not catchers.
The shift was prompted by ever-stricter international regulations designed to keep stocks of bluefin tuna from shrinking further. The Pacific bluefin population in 2012 was 80% smaller than in its peak year of 1960. The fish has been designated as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, a body that regulates waters around Japan, has set a goal of restoring the population of adult Pacific bluefin tuna to 43,000 tons by 2024, a 60% improvement from 2012. In Japan, the practice of catching wild Pacific bluefin tuna fry and setting up a fish farm to raise them is restricted.
To escape regulations, major Japanese fisheries are increasingly turning to self-sufficient bluefin tuna farming that uses the spawn of farmed bluefin tuna. Free from international regulations, the new farming technology is pushing these companies to the forefront of the global fishing industry.
Demand for the fish has been growing worldwide.
Japanese fish companies were among the first to rise from the ashes of World War II. Their whale meat was some of the only protein being delivered to Japanese.
The first big change came in 1977, when the U.S. enacted a law extending its exclusive fishing zone to 200 miles off the country’s coasts. This ended the era of free fishing by Japanese fleets that used to catch, among other fish, Alaska pollack in North American waters.
That same year, Japan reached a tentative agreement with Soviet Union on fishing, losing a significant volume of its salmon and trout catches.
This, along with international regulations on whale hunting, which since the 1960s had been gradually tightening, put Japan’s business of catching in ever-shallower waters.
Pressed for change, Japanese fisheries attempted to turn themselves into traders. Taiyo Gyogyou, now Maruha Nichiro, began purchasing fishery products through its overseas bases around the world, including Africa and India. Nippon Suisan Kaisha and Kyokuyo went down the same road.
Nikkei Inc.