Source: Anti IUU Forum Japan
On March 16th, international NGOs and East Asia based NGOs issued a joint statement welcoming the “Act on Ensuring the Proper Domestic Distribution and Importation of Specified Aquatic animals and plants” enacted at the end of last year in Japan.
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, it will be obligatory to attach a catch certificate 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, 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.
Joint Statement on Japan’s “Act on Ensuring the Proper Domestic Distribution and Importation of Specified Aquatic Animals and Plants”