Small-scale fisheries in developed countries: Looking beyond developing country narratives through Japan’s perspective

Abstract

Dialogue on improving small-scale fisheries for food security tends to centre on developing countries due to the generally more acute socio-economic problems these countries face in meeting global Sustainable Development Goals. Current management approaches to improve small-scale fisheries thus tend to cater specifically to the context of developing country fishers. This inadvertently excludes the small-scale fisheries of developed countries from international dialogue, which is a missed opportunity given the insights that can be drawn from understanding progressive challenges that emerge as small-scale fisheries evolve through different stages of socio-economic development. Japan is a developed country whose small-scale fisheries cannot be ignored- yet, most international dialogue about Japanese fisheries centre on its industrial fisheries. Against this backdrop, we stress that it is essential to raise the profile of Japanese and other developed country small-scale fisheries in order to ensure that challenges and potential solutions to their future ecological and socio-economic sustainability are heard and included in the global small-scale fisheries dialogue.