Tokyo – Seafood sold in Japan will need official proof of origin under measures planned for the early 2020s as one of the world’s leading marine product importers takes aim at poaching that has decimated fish populations.

Tokyo’s crackdown on illegally caught fish in the marketplace, as well as against poachers on the high seas, follows in the footsteps of the European Union, the U.S. and South Korea.

Around a third of global fish stocks had shrunk to unsustainable levels in 2015, Japanese government data shows. (Nikkei)