Long-term revitalisation of coastal fisheries in Fukushima Prefecture: Insights from a deliberative Q-methodology exercise

The recovery of fisheries in coastal Fukushima Prefecture, Japan reflects long-term challenges faced by coastal communities following major environmental disasters. Long-term social, cultural and economic impacts highlight the need for a just recovery, prioritising requirements and perspectives of the most affected and offering opportunity for recovery and transformation. However, a just recovery requires sustained policy support, aligning with what different sections of the community aspire to. We therefore engaged different sectors of the fishing community in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture in an exploratory collaborative Q-Methodology exercise, to identify divergence and agreement on priorities for long-term recovery in the locality. Our results show that whilst ‘the community’ is never homogenous, a just recovery may depend as much on understanding people outside the community – such as distant consumers – as those in it. We also found that place identity can remain strong across the community in the face of major environmental change; and that divergence over how to proceed with ‘recovery’ may only emerge after the initial ‘emergency’ response period has passed. We make three tentative recommendations about how existing policy could better support just recovery in Iwaki and contexts like it. One is continuing core support for reform of infrastructure and distribution systems to transform local economies. Second is enabling locally-driven messaging about quality of produce, over and above technical safety information. Third is creating processes to engage intermediaries in long-term environmental monitoring to support evidence-informed decision-making.