Seafood Distribution-Structure Change and Government Policies of Japan

일본 수산물 유통구조의 변화와 정책 대응

For the last few years, the wholesale market system in Japan has been experiencing a lot of changes in the related sectors. The greatest changes in the environments surrounding the wholesale market were enlargement of the producers' cooperatives, increase of fisheries products marketed in the outside of the wholesale market system, and management aggravation of the related businessmen, These changes resulted in the revision of the wholesale Market Law in 1999 to cope with the social needs successfully. Recently, fisheries wholesale markets in Japan have a few problems like declining of earning power, weakening of management constitution, etc. Consequently, Japanese government presents policy for enforcing the competition power through reform laws related with fisheries wholesale markets. Also the fisheries wholesale markets have been trying variety and active countermeasures like undertaking, merger, coalition, etc. to overcome the crisis.