This study examines the effectiveness of applying the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) based approach to the importing process to mitigate the risk of violating the Food Sanitation Act in Japan. HACCP is known as a preventive tool against food safety hazards that is better than relying on end-product testing. It has generally been applied to food manufacturing processes rather than importing processes. In our previous research, we found that the HACCP-based approach can be applied to imported agricultural products for mitigating violations caused by agri-chemical residues, especially pesticides. In this study, we confirmed the applicability of this approach to natural toxicants, especially the presence of the unavoidable contaminant aflatoxin in maize, and then evaluated the effectiveness of this approach. The presence of aflatoxins in maize is one of the major food violations and accounted for 8% of all such violations reported in Japan between 2012 and 2015. Primary causes of aflatoxin violations were “Heterogeneous bulk lots (29%)”, “Sweating of the commodity during transportation (18%)”, “Contaminated from soil (14%)” and “Drought (9%).”
Based on the results, we conducted a hazard analysis on the food importing process of “aflatoxins in maize”. Nine steps were identified in the importing process and of them, two steps: “Evaluate the test results at exporting” and “Import” were determined as critical control points (CCPs). The CCPs, monitoring methods, and corrective action were evaluated by conducting an interview with an importer. During a high-risk period of aflatoxin violations, we found that the CCPs substantially mitigated violation risk, and the CCPs-based corrective action prevented 47 potential violations in the period. These results show that the HACCP-based approach is applicable to the importing process and mitigates the violation risk due to natural toxicants.

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Although solving various problems and promoting the region have been important policy themes for a long time, the Japanese fishing community continues to lose its vitality. The government has employed a variety of measures in recent years to transform fisheries through the sixth industrialization, without much success. One of the causes for this is a lack of cooperation between fishermen and related businesses. Therefore, at this symposium, we will discuss cooperation between fisheries and related businesses from the perspective of the sixth industrialization of fisheries, paying special attention to the effectiveness and economic efficiency.

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Collaboration is one of the important elements of the sixth industrialization. In this paper, cases of the sixth industrialization of the fishing sector are examined to clarify economic principles embedded in the partnerships. A literature review on economic and business theories is conducted to derive economic principles that are associated to functionality in business partnerships. Six theoretical patterns of collaboration are derived from a matrix of characteristics and contents of collaboration. The case studies of six successful cases of the sixth industrialization of the fishing sector that correspond to each pattern show that the collaboration bring about benefits to participated individual economic agents and further provide a secondary benefit as a system. It is concluded that it is not a single economic principle that produces such positive effects of collaboration, but the economics of collaboration is produced by a combination of diverse economic principles in a complex manner.

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The current business model of the fishing industry is based on the distribution process and value chain of fisheries products, as supported by the Central Wholesale Market. Reconstructing this business model depends on two factors: market exploring and product development. Market exploration should be prioritized, as the fishing industry is experiencing problems with fish pricing. Furthermore, this exploration should be carried out continuously. Through three case studies, this paper argues that the main scheme of the sixth sector industrialization of the fishing industry should be the reconstruction of the current distribution process, resulting in a new business models for the distribution process, as well as innovative platforms for the fish market.

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This study analyzed cases regarding the Sixth Industry*, particularly the cooperation of fishers and aquaculture farmers with other industrial sectors. The main cases of cooperation in the Sixth Industry resulted in extremely fresh raw materials/live aquatic products, more underutilized fish and shellfish, and a fishing ground and/or fishing village for ecotourism. There was major cooperation between fishers/farmers and fisheries cooperative association; however, cases of cooperation between fishers/farmers and private companies were fewer while unique.
*Sixth Industry: Integration of primary industry with secondary and/or tertiary industry

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