Operations by Foreign Fishing Vessels in Japanese Offshore Waters and Analysis of Their Actual Impact on Japanese Fishing Vessels

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K06249
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 41010:Agricultural and food economics-related
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Takafumi SASAKI 北海道大学, 水産科学研究院, 准教授 (00518954)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 安全保障 / 東シナ海 / 日中漁業協定 / 日台民間漁業取決め / 尖閣諸島 / 中国 / ロシア / 台湾

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study attempted to understand an impact of operations by foreign fishing vessels in Japanese offshore waters on Japanese fishing vessels, and to identify, from the standpoint of food security, potential challenges caused by the increased employment of foreign workforce in the fishing vessel fishery. The analysis found that the active deployment of Chinese fishing vessels in the East China Sea limited the operations by Japanese haul net, trawl, and other fishing vessels. In North Pacific and other offshore waters, there was an increase in risk of visit and seizure in the context of invasion of Ukraine as well as in eagerness of some Russian trawl fishing vessels to deploy to Japanese coastal waters. Under such circumstances, Japanese fishing vessels have increasingly relied on foreign workforce, making food security issues more challenging in terms of both fishing grounds and securing manpower.

Free Research Field

漁業経済学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、日本の漁船漁業が漁場利用条件の悪化や労働環境の厳しさから持続的発展が容易ではなくなっている状況下で、その実態をいくつかの視点から明らかにし、日本漁業の持続的発展策を検討する際の基礎的な知見を提供しようとするものであった。そしてロシアによるウクライナ侵攻や台湾海峡問題など、日本を取り巻く国際情勢が厳しさを増す中で、日本の安全保障を考察する際の新たな視点を漁業分野から提供しようとするものとなっていた。