Japan v Satoshi Kitajima and Akira Yamamoto

• Jurisdiction: Japón
• Date: 30 September 1970
• Court: Supreme Court (Japan)

Japan, Sapporo High Court.

Japan, Supreme Court.

(Saito C.J., Sato and Shibata, JJ.)

(Kusaka C.J., Kido, Irokawa and Murakami, JJ.)

State of Japan

and

Satoshi Kitajima and Akira Yamamoto

Jurisdiction In general Territorial jurisdiction Fisheries Jurisdiction to regulate fishing Whether restricted to territorial waters Jurisdiction to regulate fishing in the high seas and foreign territorial waters If and when possible The law of Japan

Summary: The facts:Kunashiri Island and its territorial waters were not under Japanese sovereignty. The accused were charged with the violation of Japanese Fisheries Law in respect of fishing in the territorial waters of Kunashiri. The question arose whether Japan had jurisdiction to regulate fishing in Kunashiri territorial waters.

Held:(I) The jurisdiction to regulate fisheries was not restricted to Japan's territorial waters.

(2) The jurisdiction extended to waters subject to public use and waters adjoining thereto, Kunashiri waters fell within this and the regulation of fisheries in those waters was valid although no permission could be given by Japanese authorities to fish In those waters.

The following is the text of the judgment of the High Court:

(As the public procurator lodged a kso appeal against the judgment rendered by the Kushiro District Court on 29 March 1988, in the case involving the accuseds' violation of the Fisheries Law, this Court has examined the case with the presence of the public procurators, Kyugaku Suzuki and Masamoto Nishimoto, and the judge.)

Original judgment shall be set aside.

Satoshi Kitajima shall be punished with a fine of 100,000 yen, and Akira Yamamoto shall be punished with a fine of 80,000 yen.

If the accused do not pay the fines, they shall be detained in a work house until their fines are paid when calculated at 100 yen per day. The price of the scallops converted into cash, 80,997 yen, which has been deposited with the Bank of Japan by the official in charge of non-revenue or expenditure cash accounts of the Sapporo District Public Procurator's Office, shall be forfeited by the accused Satoshi Kitajima.

All costs of litigation at the original court shall be borne jointly by the accused.

Reasons:

The reasons for the appeal in this case are as shown in the statement of reasons for appeal presented by Takeshi Takeuchi, public procurator of the Sapporo High Public Procurator's Office, and the pleadings in answer are as shown in the written answer presented by Hajime Noguchi, attorney for the defendants. So we shall quote from them.

It is clear that the original judgment essentially recognized the facts shown in the specific counts based on the evidence recited in the text of that judgment. But it pronounced the accused not guilty for the reason that, it interpreted the general prohibition provided by Art. 66 (1) of the Fisheries Law not to extend to the acts of the accused along the coast of Kunashiri Island. It is insisted in essence in the...