112 Thirty-Third Annual Meeting 
3. In the relative importance of fishery products in the 
domestic economy. 
4. In the ingenuity and skill shown by the people in devis- 
ing and using fishing appliances and in preparing fishery pro- 
ducts. 
5. In the extent to which all kinds of water products are 
utilized. 
6. In the zeal displayed by the government in promoting 
the interests of the fishing population. 
Complete statistics of the Japanese fisheries have not been 
published, and many details that one would like to know are 
inaccessible. Statistics of the catch, however, are fairly com- 
plete and are alone sufficient to place Japan in the front rank of 
the fishing nations. The annual value of the water products 
is now about $30,000,000. ‘The fishing vessels and boats number 
nearly 500,000, of which about 18,000 are more than 30 feet 
long, and 85,000 additional are more than 18 feet long. 
One-twentieth of the entire population is fishermen. The 
latest figures available give 940,000 professional fishermen and 
1,400,000 who devote a part of their time to fishing and a part 
to agriculture or other pursuits, a total of 2,340,000, as against 
150,000 in the United States. 
The factors which underlie Japan’s greatness as a fishing 
nation are numerous, and some of them have already been sug- 
gested, such as the ingenuity and industry of the race, and the 
spirit of frugality which results in the saving of every product 
of the water. The geographical features have, of course, been 
potent in developing the fisheries—the numerous islands and the 
great length of the coast lne (estimated at 30,000 kilometers) 
bringing a large part of the population within easy reach of 
the sea, so that there is scarcely any part of the empire where 
fresh fish may not be had daily and this too without the aid of 
railroads and ice. The extension of the empire diagonally 
through 385 degrees of latitude and 38 degrees of longitude is 
accompanied by a wonderful variety of water life, upward of 
1,000 species of fishes being already known, and other classes 
being correspondingly well represented. ‘To all of this is to be 
added a great abundance of most useful products, some peculiar 
to the inshore waters, others high-sea species which come close 
