Members of Anti IUU Forum Japan have issued a joint statement to Japanese government officials recommending steps that should be taken to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The Anti IUU Forum Japan is a group of NGOs promoting sustainable fisheries that includes WWF Japan, Seafood Legacy Co., The Nature Conservancy, Sailors for the Sea Japan, Environmental Defense Fund, and GR Japan K.K.
Their “Joint Statement on Domestic Trade of Specific Marine Animals and Plants Act in Japan” was sent to Japan Fisheries Agency Director General Takashi Koya and Senior Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Arata Takebe in May 2022.
It comes in response to the Domestic Trade of Specific Marine Animals and Plants Act, which became law in Japan in December 2020, setting regulations that limit imports of seafood related to IUU. The law requires record-keeping on catches and transfers in order to establish traceability, and a “certificate of legal catch” for all seafood imports. It is similar to the U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program initiated in 2018, and the E.U. IUU Regulation established by the European Union in 2010, though the law in Japan and SIMP in the U.S. focus on selected species, while that of the E.U. covers all species.
Though the Japanese Diet passed the law in 2020, it did not come into effect immediately, as it was converted into formal regulations over the following two years. That work included selecting the species to be covered, reducing the workload of operators, the electronification of data, and collaborating with other countries regarding mutual acceptance of national certifications.