Implications of Japanese Experience in Fisheries to Asia and the World

Fisheries are increasingly important in the world with growing demand for fish in China, Western, African and Asian countries. Many people depend on fisheries and will be benefited from fisheries. Many governments took fisheries promotion policies after the 1970s when the UN 3 rd Law of the Sea Conference developed. However, these resulted in over-capitalization, over-fishing, illegal fishing and resource depletion. Together with land-based environmental destruction and anti-whaling movement, capture fisheries situation is not optimistic. Aquaculture have been paid much attention along with poor prospects on capture fisheries. However, aquaculture is not problem free. Most of fisheries problems in the world are repetition of Japanese experience in fisheries now facing a big ban. This paper focuses on lessons learned from Japanese experiences to develop sustainable fisheries in Asia and the world.