Economic Conditions for New Entrants in Coastal Fishing in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

A significant decrease in the number of fishery workers is becoming a problem in Japan. For new entrants to become established in the region, they must be profitable as fishing businesses. Using the case of Miyazaki prefecture in Japan, this paper identifies the economic conditions required to make longline fishing and bottom gillnet fishing profitable by applying the net present value (NPV) method. When operating on 200 days, which is the guideline for new entrants in longline fishing, if the value of investment is less than 44.1% of the minimum required, the investment will not provide positive returns. However, the study also finds that new entrants using both longline and bottom gillnet fishing can easily generate the revenue required to cover investments and can, therefore, be profitable. For 226 operating days, which is the guideline for new entrants in longline and bottom gillnet fishing, investment will offer positive returns when it exceeds (sic) 5.7 million. Moreover, increasing the number of operating days by 13.3 to 256 raises the return on investment by 14.0%. Therefore, the value of investment is proportional to an increase in operating days. If the price of half-smooth golden pufferfish, the main catch in longline fishing, increases by 5.0% to (sic) 624.1 per kilogram, the number of operating days can be reduced by up to 8.9%. If local initiatives raise the value of half-smooth golden pufferfish, new entrants can significantly reduce their number of operating days, thereby promoting fisheries management and reducing their labor burden.