Fishing and Farming: A Comparison of the Governance of Southern Bluefin Tuna Industries in Japan and Australia

Research PaperThe least well understood aspects of economic development in general are the social aspects, and economic activity around fishing is no exception. Far more research effort is directed to the biology and economics of fisheries than to the cultural, social and political facets of fisheries. Bilateral disputes over fisheries between Japan and Australia have been endemic, and culminated in an international legal dispute over southern bluefin tuna in the late 1990s. Clearly Japan and Australia have had difficulties understanding each other's position regarding fishing. This paper summarizes a wider project aimed at improving understanding by making information about the social and political structures of the fishery in each country available in both Japanese and English. Comparative analysis of these structures gives insight into the extent and precise nature of differences in marine resource governance in these two countries, and builds foundations for approaches to considering the sociology and governance of fisheries in other contexts