狩猟の諸要素を踏まえた2014年鳥獣法改正の法的分析(「鳥獣の保護及び管理並びに狩猟の適正化に関する法律」に寄せる期待と展望)

The Wildlife Protection and Proper Hunting Act was revised in 2014 including changing its title to the Wildlife Protection and Management, and Proper Hunting Act. The author analyses the revision according to the elements of hunting and capturing of wildlife: cause (purpose), object, hunter, devise, and the place to hunt. As seen from the change in the title of the Act, the revision emphasizes management of wildlife as cause and purpose for capturing and hunting wildlife. Accordingly, categorization of wildlife was changed. To facilitate control of over-abundant species-namely wild boar and deer-the revised Act splits the species management planning system to species to protect and species to manage, which is defined to decrease its numbers and/or its range. The organization of hunters is the largest change in the revision. In Japan, wildlife management activities, such as wildlife damage control and culling, are conducted by hunters belonging to the local hunters associations of the given area. Usually hunters are not payed. Hunters are motivated to volunteer not only many of them are farmers themselves but they feel obligated to deal with wildlife problems in their local hunting grounds. This practice is embedded in the institutions and traditions of agrarian Japanese rural society. The revised Act, however, aims to facilitate professional cooperate bodies to take the place of local hunters as paid contractors and eventually establish a market for wildlife management. The revised Act makes a small change in hunting devises by facilitating the use of tranquilizer guns in residential areas. Regarding the place to hunt, the revision did not introduce any changes. The issue inevitably connects to the question of landownership and hunting. Japanese statutes leaves most of the question to local custom and it is generally accepted that hunters are not necessary required to get permission from the landowner to hunt. However, this tradition may face challenges due to rapid urbanization and change in rural communities.