THE FISHERIES OF JAPAN 



By Hugh M. Smith, of the Bureau of Fisheries 



JAPAN is today the leading fishing 

 nation in the world. Probably in 

 no other country has the sea played 

 a greater part in the material and 

 sentimental development of a people. 

 With only a limited area available for 

 agriculture, fish early became a great 

 food staple. Every day in the year 

 every Japanese family has some form of 

 fish food. As conducted by the Japanese, 

 fishing is more than an industry — it is 

 a fine art. Centuries ago Japanese 

 fisheries had attained great importance. 

 Some of their fishing literature goes 

 back a thousand years. 



For weeks at a time I was away from 

 towns which possessed a European hotel, 

 and I lived at Japanese inns in strictly 

 native style, sleeping on the floor, receiv- 

 ing callers while kneeling on the floor, 

 and eating while sitting cross-legged 

 before miniature tables, my wants sup- 

 plied by more polite waitresses than one 

 ever meets in any other land. A typical 

 Japanese meal abounds in products of the 

 water, and is replete with surprises to 

 the unsophisticated foreigner. This is 

 particularly true of the smaller fishing 

 villages, where I passed many days. 



When it comes to eating water pro- 

 ducts, the Japanese have few prejudices. 

 If they discard any species of fish, these 

 must be very few indeed, and I did not 

 learn of any . Among their commonest , 

 cheapest, and most wholesome food 

 fishes are sharks, which are brought into 

 the markets and butchered much after 

 the manner of beeves in our own country. 

 Raw fish is one of the national foods. 

 I acknowledge that my repugnance to 

 it was great, but was overcome by the 

 first dish, for, as prepared and served by 

 the Japanese, the thin, cold, boneless 

 slices of perfectly fresh mackerel, taken 



with chop sticks and dipped in, say, 

 bean sauce, are delicious. 



Other articles which I have eaten at 

 a single full course are fish, soup, fried 

 fish, baked fish, fried eels and rice, 

 pickled eggs of sea urchins, dry octopus 

 or squid, boiled abalone, see-weed jelly, 

 and shredded whale cartilage pickled. 



For some reason we do not knowingly 

 eat sharks, and in this we miss a good 

 deal. As some people are doubtless 

 aware, the dogfish, which appear in such 

 immense droves on our east coast and 

 are so destructive of other fish life, are 

 excellent when fresh or canned, and I 

 predict that the day will come when 

 these and other sharks will be regularly 

 seen in our markets 



In asserting that Japan is the leading 

 fishing nation, I am, of course, aware 

 that its fisheries are exceeded in value 

 by those of two or three other countries, 

 but Japan is preeminent in the actual 

 number of people making a livelihood in 

 this way; in the proportion of persons 

 engaged in fishing of the total popula- 

 tion; in the relative importance of fish- 

 ing products in the domestic economy; 

 in the ingenuity and skill shown by the 

 people in devising fishing appliances and 

 in preparing fishing products; in the ex- 

 tent to which all kinds of water products 

 are utilized; in the zeal displayed by the 

 government in promoting the interests 

 of the fishing population. 



The annual value of the water pro- 

 ducts 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 more ex- 

 ceed 18 feet. One-twentieth of the en- 

 tire population are fishermen . The latest 

 figures available give 940,000 profes- 

 sionals and 1,400, 000 who devote a part 



* Courtesy of Boston Evening Transcript. 



