Perceptions of “sustainable fisheries” in the UK and Japan using best-worst scaling

Sustainable fisheries contribute to various fields of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, progress towards achieving SDGs relating to fisheries differs between regions. There have been longstanding debates on how to achieve both sustainable use of marine resources and environmental protection, which might reflect different conceptualisations and perceptions of sustainable fisheries. This paper aims to: 1) obtain an overview of discussions regarding sustainable fisheries in the UK and Japan; and 2) evaluate the preferences of fisheries specialists towards the four pillars (institutional, social and cultural, ecological and economic) of sustainable fisheries using the Best Worst Scaling (BWS) method. The results reveal that, compared to Japanese fisheries specialists, the UK participants had a higher preference for the institutional pillar, but a lower preference for the social and cultural pillar, with ecological and economic pillars in between. As a case study to facilitate mutual understanding in fisheries, we provide the first empirical evidence revealing of how the preferences towards “sustainable fisheries” across the UK and Japan can be explained by four types of pillars. Differences in the demographic importance of fisheries workers, institutional management system, and seafood culture are discussed as factors affecting the results, but further research is needed in that regard.