Japan has belatedly ratified an international agreement aimed at eliminating illegal fishing, which is estimated to reach up to 26 million tons a year and is feared to threaten efforts toward sustainable fishing in the world's oceans. As a major consumer of fish and a key fisheries player, Japan needs to tighten its own domestic measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, brokered by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), entered into force in June 2016 with the participation of more than 40 countries and the European Union. Due to the delay in readying domestic measures, it took Japan another year to ratify and join the agreement, which restricts port access to fishing ships that do not comply with the rules, including proof that they have proper operating licenses and disclosure of the species and quantity of the fish caught. It is meant to crack down on IUU fishing, whose value is said to amount each year to $23.5 billion worldwide, or roughly ¥2.6 trillion — far larger than Japan's annual fisheries output of some ¥1.5 trillion. It is feared that the products of IUU fishing are consumed in Japan in large volumes.

While ratification of the accord puts Japan in step with other countries in the concerted international effort to combat IUU fishing, a recent string of revelations of illicit fishing by Japanese fishermen exposes the nation's weak regulations against such practices.