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Japan explains its
opposition to deal limiting
Pacific tuna fishing

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Associated Press

TOKYO -- Already under criticism for expanding its annual whale hunt, Japan is bracing for an even bigger fishing dispute with the United States -- over how to regulate the lucrative tuna industry.

At a 24-country conference on migratory fish that ended yesterday in Honolulu, Japan was one of five participants that refused to agree to a U.S.-backed proposal to establish a commission to regulate the catch of tuna in the western and central Pacific Ocean. South Korea also voted against the agreement, while China, France and Tonga abstained from voting.

The parting of ways came less than a week after U.S. officials boycotted a United Nations environmental conference held in Japan in protest over Japan's decision last month to scale up its whaling activities for research purposes.

A Japanese official said that Japan was opposed primarily to the proposed tuna commission's decision-making rules, which in most cases don't allow members to dissent from a majority decision.

Members of the Japanese delegation in Honolulu warned that Japan might ignore any new regulations if its concerns were not taken into account -- or an alternative treaty put forward for conserving the Pacific's tuna fisheries.

Two-thirds of the world's tuna is caught in the region and is valued at $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year. Japan is one of the world's biggest tuna-fishing nations, along with Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines.