Manya Rathore
Research expert covering India
Fisheries and aquacultures in Japan - statistics & facts
Once the world’s largest fishing nation, Japan is now sinking towards the bottom of the leading ten countries in the fishery and aquaculture sector. With the implementation of exclusive economic zones in the 1970s, Japan had to fall back on exploiting fish stocks in its own territories, resulting in severe overfishing. Additionally, global warming increasingly threatens these resources, with over 60 percent of fish stocks in Japanese waters estimated to be at a low level. Only a small percentage of seafood caught in Japan meets international sustainable seafood guidelines. Consequently, in 2018, official fishing regulations were revised to provide a more sustainable, quota-driven management of marine resources.
