As the yen has plunged in recent months, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s popularity has soared. But would the love still be there if cheap sushi fell by the wayside, a victim of Mr. Abe’s economic policies?
This Friday and Saturday, 1,000 squid boats operating under the auspices of the nation’s largest cooperative of small-scale fishermen, the National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Association, will go on strike to protest skyrocketing fuel costs. Those rising costs are a direct result of the weak yen, which in turn was sparked by the deflation-busting policies of Mr. Abe, dubbed Abenomics. It will be the first nationwide fishermen’s strike in five years.
We’re asking the government to help us deal with the yen’s abrupt drop, said Rika Tatsuki, a public affairs official with the association, explaining that squid boats are especially vulnerable to high fuel costs, accounting for a third or more of operating costs.
Many of our squid boats have remained docked because they can’t afford to go out to sea, she said.
As anyone knows who has seen the incandescent spectacle of squid boats at work at night, the boats are equipped with lights powerful enough to illuminate a baseball stadium to lure squids to the surface. A medium-sized boat uses as much as 250 kilowatts of electricity per expeditionenough to power 500 households. An entire fleet is visible from space.
But all that electricity comes from gas-gobbling onboard generators. At the yen’s current level, nightly fuel costs alone come to ¥70,000-¥80,000 ($700-$800). Fishermen have watched in horror as the dollar has risen by over ¥22 since mid-September. According to the association, each ¥1 rise boosts fuel costs by ¥700 per kiloliter.
In response, chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday that public funds may be available to help the fishermen through the dire times. I think we can handle it to a certain degree, said Mr. Suga.
But such help is likely to come too late to avert this week’s strike. The last time fishermen went on strike was in 2008, when 17 national unions walked off the boats for a day, keeping 200,000 vessels in port to protest rising fuel costs.
Back then, we were able to raise the price of fish as operating costs increased, Ms. Tatsuki said. That’s not the case anymore.
Higher fuel costs aren’t the only thing making times tough for the fishing industry. Following the Fukushima nuclear plant accident that began in March 2011, consumers have stayed away from seafood products from the rich waters off Japan’s northeastern coast, even though tests have shown them to be mostly radiation-free.
And with Japan almost certain to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks, the country’s aging fishermen will be exposed to more foreign competition as well.
If that weren’t enough, the fishermen of the southern island prefecture of Okinawa may be feeling they have been used as sacrificial pawns in the name of international diplomacy. Earlier this month, Japan signed a fisheries treaty with Taiwan covering the waters near a chain of disputed islets known as Senkaku in Japan, Diaoyu in China, and Diaoyutai in Taiwan.
Japan hopes the treaty, which expands Taiwan’s rights, will assuage Taiwan. But the Okinawan fisherman say they are the real losers.
The fishermen’s livelihoods are being squeezed, Ms. Tatsuki said.
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