Browsing by Author "Murota, Takeshi"

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Fishery Commons in Japan: Their Legal Framework and Recent Crises
(2011) Murota, Takeshi
"Coastal fisheries in Japan is very unique in the world in the sense that its major part has been managed by fishery cooperative associations (FCAs) of local nature. Each FCA has its own rule of harvest times (seasons, days, or hours of operation), mesh sizes of fishing nets, and others for sustainable yields. At the same time, each FCA is entitled with fishery rights of various nature over specific sea (or freshwater) surfaces. Such fishery rights are deemed to be real rights under the Fishery Act. Hence, each FCA can be considered as a common, which we call a fishery common in this paper. The purpose of this paper is then three folds. Firstly, the paper describes the history and present of such fishery commons in view of the old and current Fishery Acts of Japan. Legal structure of multi-level fishery resources governance is analyzed. Secondly, the paper points out the recent trend of weakening of FCAs by various reasons such as a nationwide policy of merging small, local FCAs into a large, prefectural FCA, politico-economic pressure on small FCAs to abandon fishery rights for industrial development (e.g., nuclear power plants construction) in coastal areas, conflict between traditional fishing activities of FCA members and new marine leisure of urban populace, and others. Thirdly, the paper proposes possible directions of re-strengthening local FCAs from the viewpoint of environmental governance. An example of such direction has already been seen in the recently arisen rural-urban linkage in the form of participation of urban consumers in tree planting activities of FCA members to propagate uo-tsuki-rin (fish breeding forest)."
Multi-layered Natural Resources Management in Open and Closed Commons: A Case Study on the Right of Access and the State, Community and Farm Commons in Norway
(2011) Shimada, Daisaku; Murota, Takeshi
"This paper defines theclosed commonsas a commons which is equipped with strict membership requirements and rules based on a regional relationship for managing and using available natural resources.Iriai1 in Japanis an example of this. There also existsin Norway closed commons, such as the state commons (statsallmenning), the community commons (bygdeallmenning)and the farm commons (realsameie). These have been selected as a case study of a closed commons in this paper."
New Role of Common Spaces for Environmental Conservation in Japan
(2008) Murota, Takeshi
"The purpose of this paper is two folds. The first task is to clarify five major types of common spaces including water surfaces in the present day Japan. They are (1) iriai-gyojou (common fishery grounds), (2) iriai-rinya (common forests/grasslands), (3) uotsuki-rin (fish breeding forests), (4) tameike (irrigation ponds), and (5) ridou and suiro (non designated hamlet roads and water courses). The number of commons in Japan after the WWII has decreased. But that is not all. Many of them are alive in their own manners in many localities. "The second task of the paper is to show that some commoners are very active for resource management toward environmental conservation in their own localities in spite of many socio-economic difficulties. The paper presents several cases of the common spaces which have been performing crucial roles of preventing environmental destruction in local communities. Some cases Cooperation between commoners and people outside of commons are also discussed."