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Case One: Driftnet Fishing

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Legitimacy in International Society

Part of the book series: St Antony’s Series ((STANTS))

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Abstract

It took only the three years between 1989 and 1991 for international campaigns against large-scale pelagic driftnet fishing to phase out the 100-year-old Japanese practice on the high seas. Driftnet fishing was conducted globally, with albacore fisheries in the North Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Indian Oceans; the squid and salmon fisheries in the North Pacific; and fisheries for swordfish in the Mediterranean.1 The driftnet fishing issue became the first case in the history of the United Nations (UN) in which Japan and the United States introduced conflicting draft resolutions to a committee of the UN General Assembly.2 Eventually, in November 1991, Japan decided not to conduct large-scale driftnet fishing on the high seas from January 1993.3

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  1. UN General Assembly, 45th Session, Large-Scale Pelagic Driftnet Fishing and its Impact on the Living Marine Resources of the World’s Oceans and Seas: Report of the Secretary-General A/45/663 (October 26, 1990), pp. 19–36.

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  3. UN General Assembly Resolution 44/225: Large-scale Pelagic Driftnet Fishing and its Impact on the Living Marine Resources of the World’s Oceans and Seas, in UN General Assembly, 44th Session, Official Records, Supplement 49, Resolutions and Decisions Adopted by the General Assembly during its Forty-Fourth Session: Volume I A/44/49 (1989), pp. 147–8.

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  7. The fishing that expanded onto the high seas was placed under a limited entry licensing system in 1990, which allowed more than 200 boats. At the beginning of 1992, a ban was introduced in this fishing as well. In 1990, approximately, 2000 fishermen on 150 vessels produced a yield of 30,000 tons. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fisheries Division, “Kokai nagashiami gyogyo mondai” [High Seas Driftnet Fishing Issue], (Tokyo, June 18, 1992), p. 1; Yomiuri shinbun (November 26, 1991, evening edition), p. 2.

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  45. The Fisheries Agency opposed it, pointing out that the bill could be in a violation of the GATT provisions. House of Representatives, Secretariat, Shugiin nôrinsuisan iinkai kaigiroku [Minutes of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, House of Representatives] (July 28, 1987), pp. 10, 16; House of Councillors, Secretariat, Sangiin norinsuisan iinkai kaigiroku [Minutes of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, House of Councillors] (July 30, 1987), p. 19; Yomiuri shinbun (September 8, 1987), p. 7.

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  69. In the meantime, 44.5 percent of people supported the incidental catches of marine mammals and sea birds while 89.1 percent upheld the diet of whale meat. Kawai Tomoyasu, Nihon no gyogyo [Japan’s Fisheries] (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1994), pp. 86–99.

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  1. Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Japan

    Isao Miyaoka (Associate Professor of International Politics)

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© 2004 Isao Miyaoka

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Miyaoka, I. (2004). Case One: Driftnet Fishing. In: Legitimacy in International Society. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403948199_4

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