In 1957 Japan's fisheries produced 

 over 11 billion pounds of fish and other 

 aquatic products (More than double the 

 United States catch) . Japan produces 

 roughly half of the world's tuna while the 

 United States produces only about one fifth. 



Fleet Expansion 



The Japanese tuna fleet has long been 

 one of the world's largest and since the war 

 it has increased considerably through the 

 aid of a Government vessel subsidy program. 

 Over 500 tuna vessels (77,000 gross tons) 

 have been built in less than two years. The 

 gross tonnage of the fleet has risen from 

 78,517 in 19U7 to 197,760 in 1956 (table 1). 



Table 1. — Increase in size of Japanese 



tuna fleet, 1947-56. 



It should also be noted that during the 

 period of reconstruction of the Japanese 

 fleet in the early 1950' s there was a 

 shift toward building larger and larger 

 vessels. In 19U8 the average vessel size 

 was 56 tons and by 1956 the average size was 

 112 tons, or double, with some larger vessels 

 approaching 1000 tons. More recently there 

 has been a return to building more modest- 

 sized vessels. 



Geographical Expansion 



We have already noted how Japan's 

 ancient tuna fishery rapidly developed after 

 the advent of powered vessels and how there 

 was a continual expansion of her fishing 

 area, curtailed only by pre-world War II 

 military demands (fig. U) . Japan's economy 

 after World War II was at first controlled 

 by the Allied Military Government and fish- 

 ery operations were limited. With the end 

 of the Occupation in 1952 however, Japanese 

 vessels quickly spread their activities in 

 to the western, central and south Pacific 

 and the Indian Ocean (the groundwork had 

 been laid by prewar Government research) . 



In 1956 they moved into the Atlantic (fig. 5) 

 and more recently there has also been some 

 Japanese fishing in the Eastern Tropical 

 Pacific. Although the geographical expan- 

 sion may be approaching a maximum, Japan is 

 continually searching for new fishing grounds. 



Foreign Based Operations 



There were no restraints on Japan's 

 fisheries in the world's oceans after April 

 1952; a few notable exceptions are areas 

 along the Chinese and Korean Coasts, the 

 Sea of Okhotsk and the North Pacific off 

 Kamchatka. Accordingly, her fisheries 

 rapidly spread, and especially in search of 

 tuna, they operated at greater and greater 

 distances from the homeland. As distances 

 to fishing grounds increased, bases abroad 

 were sought and fishery operations based 

 overseas came into existence. An outstand- 

 ing advantage of foreign based operations 

 to the Japanese is that fishing can be 

 carried out with short-range vessels. Joint 

 overseas fishing enterprises have been 

 sponsored primarily to invest Japanese cap- 

 ital in areas where rich fishery resources 

 exist, to relieve pressure on Japanese 

 resources by removing vessels or fishermen 

 from the Japanese coastal fisheries, to 

 foster emigration, and by providing them 

 with bases nearer the fishing grounds, to 

 reduce the cost of operating large vessels 

 in overseas areas. 



Kinds of Japanese overseas fishery 

 arrangements are (l) joint companies to 

 conduct fishery and processing operations, 

 (2) contracts or concessions to supply 

 fishery products to local markets or proc- 

 essing plants or for export, (3) technical 

 assistance, (h) exploratory fishing, (5) 

 refueling or transshipment bases, and (6) 

 direct sale of high seas catches in a for- 

 eign port. The agreement with any foreign 

 country may include one or more of these 

 arrangements. Some joint fishing enter- 

 prises are conducted at the request of for- 

 eign countries to train their nationals in 

 modern fishery methods and to provide fish- 

 ing products for the local market or export. 

 Some have been established primarily to 

 explore the possibility of tuna fishing in 

 waters distant from Japan. 



Recent information indicates that 

 joint fishing companies are actually in 

 operation in about 15 countries, principally 

 in Asia and Latin America. The Japanese 

 Overseas Fishery Cooperative Association, 



19 



