Fishing

            Japan has the world’s largest fishing industry. It only employs about 1 % of the nation’s workers, but they catch about 1.3 million short tons of fish yearly. Japan has over 400,000 fishing vessels. Japanese fishing fleets sail in the country’s coastal waters and in many other fishing grounds throughout the world.

            Japan leads the world in tuna fishing and ranks second to the United States in the amount of salmon caught. Other products of Japan’s fishing industry include eels, flatfish, mackerel, Pollock, and sardines. Japanese fishing crews also catch large quantities of octopus, squid, clams, crabs, scallops, shrimp and other shellfish.

            During the 1970s’, almost all nations bordering the sea claimed authority over fishing zones extending 300 nautical miles off their shores. The establishment of thee zones excluded Japanese fleets from some of their valuable fishing grounds, thus reducing Japan’s annual catch by destroying fishing areas in the country’s coastal waters.

            For many years Japan was a leading whaling nation. But Japan gradually limited its catch of whales and of certain species of fish in response to international conservation regulations. In 1988, Japan joined an international moratorium for whaling. The decline in production has caused Japan to import seafood to meet the domestic demand.

Welcome

Home

Introduction

History

Government

Population

Agriculture

Mining

Service Industries

Links

About Us