02-07-2025
Hurting fishing communities try to lure tourists for extra income
Passengers aboard a boat off Inatori Port in Higashi-Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, look at the coast on May 5. (Sho Hatsumi)
Suffering from steadily shrinking hauls, fishing communities around Japan are targeting something that is much more in abundance: tourists.
Some are offering 'fishing boat cruises' during nonfishing hours. Others are promoting land-based attractions to gain extra income.
The government is backing such moves under the catchword of 'umigyo' (sea industries), a generic term for projects that use marine resources.
Japan's total fishery haul, including from aquaculture, fell below 4 million tons in 2022, less than one-third of the peak levels of the 1980s.
The average income for privately operated fishing boats has hovered between 2 million yen and 3 million yen ($14,000 and $21,000), and the demographic of fishermen is shrinking and aging.
Inatori Port in Higashi-Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, known for catches of 'kinmedai' (splendid alfonsino), is one of the many areas around Japan with dwindling catches.
Kinmedai are usually caught in the early morning hours. But on one afternoon in early May, the Inari Maru fishing boat with a gross tonnage of 12 tons left Inatori Port.
Ten minutes after departure, the voice of a guide called out to the 10 tourists aboard through a speaker.
'Look toward the coast, please,' the voice said. 'The pair of big rocks you will see are 'Hasami Ishi' (holding rocks).'
The passengers trained their cameras on the oddly shaped rocks that appeared to be holding a smaller rock.
'I am taking a ride on a fishing boat for the first time,' said Masami Komon, a 61-year-old passenger from Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. 'A ride on a sightseeing boat is nowhere near this compelling.'
The passengers were also treated to 'sanga yaki,' a local fish dish, during the approximately 40-minute cruise.
The Inari Maru crew's main job is pole-and-line fishing for deep-sea kinmedai.
The total catch of the species across Shizuoka Prefecture dropped from around 3,000 tons in the 2000s to only 1,157 tons in 2024, according to the Shizuoka Prefectural Research Institute of Fishery and Ocean.
'We would catch 300 kilograms in a day 20 years ago,' said Naohisa Uchiyama, captain of the Inari Maru. 'Nowadays, however, we catch only 20 or 30 kg a day, and our earnings are dropping from year to year.'
The Inari Maru would remain idly moored at the port during the day after fishing ended at around 8 a.m.
Uchiyama, 59, decided on the additional use of the boat.
The Inari Maru has so far given rides to more than 1,000 tourists. Earnings from the cruises now match about one-third of the revenue gained from fishing.
The captain is still adjusting to the new venture.
'Deciding whether we should be setting out to sea on a cruise is more difficult than when we are setting out to fish,' Uchiyama said.
POPULAR MARKET
At Tajiri Fishing Port in Tajiri, Osaka Prefecture, just across from Kansai Airport, a morning market held every Sunday consistently draws many visitors.
The stalls selling seafood fresh from Osaka Bay are manned by fishermen themselves, one of the charms of the market.
Customers routinely line up for deep-fried servings of tempura and other products.
'Some customers say they are surprised to learn there are so many fish in Osaka Bay,' one fisherman at a market stall said. 'I feel happy when my customers tell me that my fish tasted good.'
Catches at Tajiri dropped when the fishing ground was reduced through land reclamation work for Kansai Airport, which opened in 1994.
The morning market started that same year in hoped of improving the fishermen's incomes.
'I never expected the market would be visited by so many people,' said Eiichi Nishiura, the 75-year-old head of the Tajiri fisheries cooperative association.
SAUNA WITH A VIEW
A Finnish-style sauna complex opened in May in the Kaigan-dori (seaside) district of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, which boasts one of Japan's largest hauls of Pacific saury and silver salmon.
Sauna users relaxing under a sea breeze can watch ships come and go.
The complex also has a barbecue ground outside the sauna building, and guests can buy food at a supermarket and fish shops nearby.
The sauna complex stands on a seaside square that was the seat of Onagawa's most flourishing commercial facility until the area was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
Onagawa Future Creation, a community development company, built the sauna complex in hopes of restoring liveliness in the district.
'Being a disaster-stricken area that has since been rebuilt is not enough to attract people,' said Yoshihide Abe, the 56-year-old president of the company. 'I hope people will come here and use the sauna.'
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE
The government's Basic Plan for Fisheries in 2022 included umigyo promotion.
The goal is to increase the size of the 'exchange population' between cities and fishing villages by 2 million over five years from the current 20 million.
Yasuhiro Sanada, head director of the Ocean Governance Institute, expressed a cautious stance toward the government initiative.
'The overall direction for increasing non-fishery earnings has been rightly set,' Sanada said. 'But there is a need to keep watch so the government policy will not be used as a pretext for maintaining budgets and organizations for fishing port development.'
'UMIGYO' PROJECTS UNDER WAY OR BEING PLANNED
* Tours to an inland plant for sea urchin aquaculture and hands-on experiences in sea urchin processing (Kamoenai Fishing Port in Kamoenai, Hokkaido)
* A glamping complex that draws on the availability of seafood and scenery (Himi Fishing Port in Himi, Toyama Prefecture)
* Hands-on experiences in beach seine fishery for students on school excursions (Tomiura Fishing Port in Minami-Boso, Chiba Prefecture)
* Tours to a market, mock bidding experiences, and a salon for talking to fishermen (Ohama Fishing Port in Toba, Mie Prefecture)
* Hands-on experiences in maintaining forests with fishermen (Miura Bay fishing port in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture)
(This article was written by Sho Hatsumi, Takuya Nishie and Hiroyuki Yaginuma.)
