While the state of fishery resources around Japan appears to be relatively stable, the decline in fishery production continues. To achieve a sustainable fishery industry and build a resilient fishery supply and demand system, in addition to maintaining resources "while catching" based on the maximum sustainable yield, it is essential to maintain a production system "while eating" through conscious efforts to produce locally for local consumption, taking into account the characteristics of Japan's fisheries, which are a high-variety, low-volume production.

Fishery resources are not only wildlife resources but also valuable food resources for humanity. Therefore, their conservation and management always involve a "catching" perspective. Resources are maintained and renewed through reproduction, in which parents give birth to offspring, but resources through reproduction fluctuate significantly in response to changes in the natural environment. Fishing, conversely, acts to reduce resource volumes. As a result, under fluctuating reproduction relationships, the fundamental principle of fishery resource management is to adjust fishing intensity to leave behind a quantity of parent fish that can produce enough recruitment to achieve Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).

Japan's fishing industry changed to primarily operate in coastal and offshore areas following the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1996. The 2018 Fisheries Act Reform further strengthened domestic fishery resource management in line with this approach. Figure 1 shows recent trends in resource volumes based on the FY2023 fish stock assessment results (Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency) for 9 species and 16 stocks of pelagic migratory resources such as Japanese sardine, and 13 species and 22 stocks of benthic and coastal resources such as cod and flounder species, for which the amount of parent fish to be secured and the catch limits are set based on MSY criteria. Although there has been an increase and decrease by fish species and stocks, the median values for both resources have remained almost unchanged since 2000. However, not all resources around Japan are included, and some of the resources shown here may require a slight increase in parent stock volumes or catch reduction. Additionally, international resources such as Pacific bluefin tuna and Pacific saury are separately assessed and managed by international organizations. Notably, recent declines have been prominent in Pacific saury and chum salmon stocks. However, the overall fishery resource situation around Japan has been relatively stable in recent years, suggesting that efforts toward resource utilization "while catching" are making progress.

While fishery resources around Japan appear to be relatively stable, fishing production continues to decline. Based on Fisheries and Aquaculture Production Statistics (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), Figure 2 summarizes fish species production by coastal and offshore fishing from 2000 to 2022, showing a total decrease from 4.15 million tons to 2.69 million tons. While the production volumes of skipjack tuna, tuna, and pelagic fish species such as horse mackerel, mackerel, and sardines have remained fairly unchanged, the production volume of coastal and sedentary species such as seaweed, shrimp and crab, and squid and octopus has declined. The production volume of benthic fish and other fish species has also remained at low levels or declined. In addition, the production volume of salmon and trout, and Pacific saury has also declined sharply.

While past overfishing and recent global warming impacts cannot be denied, the major factor behind this trend is largely considered to be the contraction of the production system itself. This includes the decrease in the number of fishery workers due to Japan's declining birthrate and aging population, and the reduction in the number of fishing vessels accompanying a decrease in production volumes. According to the Fisheries Census conducted every five years by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, from 2003 to 2023 the number of fishing workers has halved from 238,000 to 121,000, and the number of fishing vessels (including non-motorized fishing vessels) has also halved from 214,000 to 109,000. Additionally, changes in dietary habits and price differences with pork and chicken have contributed to consumers moving away from fish, resulting in a decrease in seafood consumption in Japan. Household purchases of fresh seafood have consistently declined, dropping from an annual 44.2 kg in 2000 to just 18.5 kg in 2023, which is less than half (national average for households with two or more people, based on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications household survey).

As global warming progresses, food production, including fishery products, is becoming unstable, while the demand for food continues to grow as the global population increases. The global food supply-demand relationship is expected to become increasingly tight in the future. Fishery resources around Japan possess high potential as food resources. However, utilizing these resources requires not only maintaining resource volumes at a sustainable level but also ensuring a certain production volume through the maintenance of fishery production systems. To this end, it is essential to maintain a domestic market for production as well as securing bearers of production, processing, and distribution__ in other words, efforts to support the fishery industry "while eating" its products.
In Japan, a variety of fisheries have been developed for the fishery resources unique to each region against the backdrop of the diverse marine environment. Consequently, high-variety, low-volume production has become unavoidable with significant regional and seasonal variations. Therefore, it is difficult to manage the distribution and consumption of these products entirely through supermarkets, which are the center of current fishery product distribution and are based on the four factors of timeliness, quantity, price, and quality in the provision of products. The decline in fisheries production of coastal and sedentary species (Figure 2) can be considered a reflection of these challenges. However, to effectively utilize the fishery resources around Japan and respond to the uncertain future food supply and demand, it is crucial to consciously promote local production for local consumption as well as crops suitable for the land in response to climate change. By stimulating demand through tourism, including inbound tourism, and strengthening direct connections with consumers and actual users within and outside the region through the internet, a cycle between fishery and aquaculture production and fishery product consumption is formed. This approach is expected to lead to the creation of a resilient supply and demand system for Japan as a whole.
Population decline, alongside global warming, is a critical challenge for Japan's future society. Many existing social systems, including railway services, operate on the premise of a certain population or population density. Against this backdrop, population decline and depopulation in rural areas are serious issues and have exposed the vulnerability of logistics infrastructure that has become apparent through recent natural disasters. The securing of burden sharers and the formation and maintenance of a domestic market depend on population size. When creating a cycle of production and consumption in a region through local production for local consumption, it will be necessary to set a range that has a population large enough to be economically self-sustaining, which will likely transcend the boundaries of existing local governments. On this basis, we hope to see initiatives that encourage people to remain in their regions and support the fishing industry “while eating,” through the optimal positioning of production, processing, and distribution hubs, social infrastructure, collaboration with related local industries, cultural and educational enrichment, and the improvement of gender balance.