The consumer preference and possibility of seafood ecolabeling in Japan

The sustainable ecolabeling is a tool to reduce overfishing and benefit sustainable fisheries. The sustainable fishery is defined as the fishery which produces products within legal framework of the local government over generations with minimizing the harmful effect on the marine ecosystem. This seafood ecolabeling can be a tool to encourage the fisheries to run a sustainable management.;Seafood ecolabeling has a possibility to improve the fishery resource problem in the world from the consumer side. If consumers preferred the ecolabeled seafood, the preference would generate a price premium for ecolabeled seafood or increase in the market share of ecolabeled seafood. Consequently, profit maximizing fisheries would be motivated to obtain the certification. In order to qualify for the ecolabel, the fishery is required to run a sustainable management because the product must have originated from a sustainable fishery. In this sense, seafood ecolabeling brings a benefit not only to the health of the ecosystem, but also to the certified fisheries.;In the market development of sustainable seafood the Japanese market is one of the most important markets if measured by size: it is the largest seafood importer and the second largest consumer in the world, after China. However, little research has been done on the ecolabeled seafood in the Japanese market. Does seafood ecolabeling have a possibility to function in the Japanese seafood market? This dissertation tries to answer the question.;This dissertation investigates the consumer preference for sustainable seafood ecolabeling and its possibility of functioning in the Japanese seafood market. Since the premise of the ecolabeling is that the consumers prefer ecolabeled products, the Japanese consumers' preference for the ecolabeled products should be revealed.;The dissertation found the Japanese consumers prefer ecolabeled seafood and are willing to pay extra money on the labeled seafood only when they recognize the ecolabeled seafood and its necessity. They are not supportive for ecolabeled seafood when they are not aware of the seafood ecolabeling and the world fishery issues. This suggests that the Japanese seafood market has a foundation for seafood ecolabeling, but needs to promote ecolabeled seafood with educational campaigns.;The preferences of the Japanese consumers were found to be diverse and to be categorized into three characteristics: the high premium group, the low premium group and the negligible premium group. Although the premiums differ across the groups, no significant relationship between the preference and demographic characteristics is found.;The dissertation also investigates whether an MSC certified fishery in Japan enjoys the benefit from the certification. Although there are some benefits from the MSC certification, anecdotal evidence from the fishery showed a financial difficulty to afford all the expenses on the MSC certification. This is especially problematic for small scale fisheries because they have a lower capability of production and cannot respond to the increased demand due to new customers of the MSC products. Thus financial supports are necessary for sustainable fisheries to qualify for the MSC and maintain the certification. The consumer preferences for ecolabeled seafood from the first three manuscripts endorse the fact that the groundwork of seafood ecolabeling is laid in the Japanese seafood market. However, the educational campaigns are necessary to compensate the lack of knowledge of the seafood ecolabeling and its necessity. The last manuscript shows the necessity of financial support and effective marketing for the certified fisheries. In order for the MSC ecolabeled products to penetrate into the Japanese market, both consumer and producer sides have some challenges to overcome.