Japanese Diet and Sustainable Fishing

There is an article at Japan Today about the effect of a potential ban on tuna exports on Japanese consumers. That leads to the subject of Japan and sustainability. I recently had lunch with a fairly high level manager at one of the large Japan seafood companies. In general conversation, several interesting points were made in reply to my questions:

1) the company he works for has stopped selling whale meet due to the negative international image which results. His attitude and that of most Japanese I know, shows little sympathy for whale hunting bans.

2) Japanese companies are engaged in a good deal of fish farming, including some tuna species, but it is not for sustainability reasons. It simply makes sense for price and supply reasons.

and

3) sustainable fishing is not something even on the radar in Japan. At present, Japanese food companies feel no pressure to protect future stocks.

I think this attitude is unfortunate, especially since the results of future collapse in fish populations will be felt more strongly here.