Annals of Regional and Community Studies
Online ISSN : 2189-6860
Print ISSN : 2189-3918
ISSN-L : 2189-3918
Featured Articles: Rebuilding the Social Relationships according to Common Resources in Local Communities: A Symposium
Communality in Japanese Coastal Fisheries
Case Studies of Abalone Fishing Groups
Takeshi HAMADA
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JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

2018 Volume 30 Pages 37-49

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Abstract

In Japan's coastal areas, common fishing rights have been established based on Japanese fishing laws. A common fishing right is given to a group of fishermen who live in a fishing village and fish in a coastal fishing ground zoon following a historical self-governed fishing system. There are shared characteristics and traditional communal relationships among the fishermen in each fishing village, indicating that coastal fishing ground, common groups in the various fishing villages, and local self-governed fishing systems are all elements of the Japanese common fishing rights system. On the other hand, most Japanese fishing villages are aging; thus, their populations are decreasing. As a result, communities in the fishing villages are in need of new entries into the common fishing rights system. Admission does not happen smoothly because of very strict rules and customs in the communal relationship among fishermen. This paper introduces three types of self-governing abalone fishing systems on the Pacific side of Japan's Tohoku area. It also describes the characteristics of communal relationships among fishermen and addresses possible changes in such relationships after the admission of new entrants to abalone fishing groups.

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© 2018 Japan Association of Regional and Community Studies
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