Tokyo Post Files: 320.1 Peace Treaty
Memorandum by the Deputy to the Consultant (Allison) to the Japanese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iguchi)1
There is given below the text of a suggested statement that might be made by the Japanese Government with respect to fishing matters:
In order that there shall be no misunderstanding, the Japanese Government confirms that Japan’s voluntary declaration in respect [Page 1174] of fishing conservation contained in the Prime Minister’s letter of the 7th February 1951 to Mr. John Foster Dulles, the Special Representative of the President of the United States, was intended to embrace fishery conservation arrangements in all parts of the world. The Government of Japan will in accordance with the abovementioned letter be prepared as soon as possible after restoration to it of full sovereignty to enter into negotiations with other countries with a view to establishing equitable arrangements for the development and conservation of fisheries which are accessible to the nationals of Japan and such other countries. The Government of Japan reaffirms that in the meantime it will as a voluntary act, implying no waiver of its international rights, prohibit Japanese nationals and Japanese registered vessels from carrying on fishing operations in presently conserved fisheries in all waters, where arrangements have already been made either by international or domestic act, to protect the fisheries from over-harvesting and in which fisheries Japanese nationals or Japanese registered vessels were not in the year 1940 conducting operations.
(Mr. Nishimura of the Foreign Office states that the Japanese Government has been planning to release this statement to the press on July 10, 1951.)2