Co‐management in marine fisheries: The Japanese experience

Employing case study data, the authors contend that the active and substantial involvement of the fishermen represented by the fishermen's cooperative association forms the core of Japanese fisheries management, supported by the government's national, prefectural, and municipal heavy financial subsidy and technical assistance. Moreover, the continued existence of the system is largely attributed to the fishermen's conflict avoidance, their compliance behavior, and their cultural values. The future of the cooperative and the community as a whole is, however, threatened by the problems of declining population and successorship, which will affect their already poor economic performance unless the government continues to provide support.