Seafood is fundamental to Japanese society, economy, and cultural identity and Japan is arguably the world’s most important seafood market.

However, wild fisheries in Japan have been in decline for years and local fishing communities across the Japanese archipelago are facing crisis. Our task is to find solutions that can be be owned and operated by the fishing communities themselves. After all, it's not sustainable fisheries if the fishermen aren’t on board. Here’s what’s new:

• We’re expanding our on-the-ground capacity in Japan and are excited to announce we hired Yu-Ichiro Meguro to coordinate our fishery outreach and technical services work in Northern Japan. Meguro-san will be working closely with our Tokyo-based Japan Program Director Shunji Murakami to engage fishery stakeholders and increase the understanding and value of sustainable seafood in Japan,

• Our new report "Opportunities for Sustainable Fisheries in Japan" lays out the complexities of Japanese fisheries and offers practical recommendations to restore wild fisheries and coastal communities across the Japanese archipelago. Accompanying this report are eleven rapid assessments of priority fisheries (see the Japan fishery summaries here) define the potential improvement and third party certification in Japan.

Next up for O2? We’ll be in Malta the SeaWeb Seafood Summit where we’re hosting four panels including one titled "Nurturing Fishery Improvement in Japan".

Hope to see you there!