Japan and Russia agreed Friday to reduce each other's fishing quotas in their respective exclusive economic waters in 2001 by 30 percent from this year, the Fisheries Agency said.
Under the agreement, reached in bilateral talks held since Dec. 4 in Tokyo, the two countries will each be able to catch 51,657 tons, down from 72,000 tons, the ministry said.
Japan also agreed that its fishing industry will make a $2.12 million (about 230 million yen) cooperation payment to Russia, down $780,000 from this year. The payments were introduced early in the 1990s to adjust for the sharp drop in of Russian boats in Japanese waters after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Japan will also pay 300 million yen for an additional 8,000 tons outside its regular quota, down 60 million yen and 1,300 tons from this year.
The two sides agreed to reduce the number of Japanese boats operating in Russian waters by 350 to 750 and the number of Russian boats operating in Japanese waters by 60 to 145. It was also agreed that Japan can catch 36,000 tons of saury next year, up 4,250 tons from this year.
But Japan's catch of cod was set at 1,116 tons, down 3,000 tons due to the recent decline in its population.