Social Science Japan Journal Advance Access originally published online on October 24, 2008
Social Science Japan Journal 2008 11(2):259-276; doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyn034
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Social Science Japan Journal 11:259-276 (2008)
© 2008 Oxford University Press
Food Security and International Fisheries Policy in Japan's Postwar Planning
Roger D. SMITH is an Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo. His primary research interests focus on Japanese foreign policy, Asian international relations, law of the sea and international fisheries. This paper provides a synthesis of arguments and evidence that will constitute one section of a forthcoming monograph, whose scope is much more expansive, in the Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series. The author welcomes any responses to this article. He can be contacted by e-mail at rdsmith27{at}hotmail.com
Japanese fisheries and food-security policy objectives of the postwar era were first conceived during the Allied Occupation and negotiations for the San Francisco Treaty. Official Japanese planning was largely concerned with food security, involving a high degree of self-sufficiency in fisheries in order to reduce the economic burden imposed by importing necessary food resources. The San Francisco Treaty provided the architecture for international fisheries relations in the North Pacific, whereby the US–Japan–Canada Trilateral Fisheries Agreement had set an important precedent through its support for freedom of the seas, resulting in Japan's largely unrestricted access to fishing grounds around the world.