THE LIMITS OF FISHERY COOPERATIVES - COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT AND RURAL DEPOPULATION IN HOKKAIDO, JAPAN

This paper explores the interrelationships between rural out-migration , long-term resource decline and cooperative organization in the case of one fishing community in Hokkaido, Japan. Contrary to the experienc e of many other Japanese fishing communities, the three cooperatives i n the community under study have not been able to develop a coherent r esponse to crisis and decline. A combination of fishing group protecti onism and organizational rigidity has limited the ability of fishing c ooperatives to respond in a consensual, collective fashion to the need s of the community. It is argued that the single stakeholder nature of the cooperative and the entrenchment of inequitable resource allocati on around contemporary developments in seaweed mariculture, have gener ated intracommunity divisions. These difficulties present obstacles to a community-focused reconstruction strategy both within and outside t he fishery.