East Asian NGOs expecting Japan’s stronger regulation against IUU fishery
On March 16th, international NGOs and East Asia based NGOs published a joint statement welcoming the “Act on Ensuring the Proper Domestic Distribution and Importation of Specified Aquatic animals and plants” enacted in Japan at the end of last year.
The law was enacted to eliminate IUU (illegal, unreported, unregulated) fisheries from the Japanese supply chain. In the future, when trading the target fish species domestically or internationally, companies on supply chains except for retailers and restaurants are required to attach catch documentation indicating that the fish was caught legally.
This statement shows that Japan’s first steps towards eradicating the IUU fishery are drawing attention in East Asia, which is Japan’s major fishery trading partner. At the same time, the statement also provides action proposals for all Asian governments to further advance the efforts on the IUU fisheries issue.
The text was edited based on Anti-IUU Forum Japan
