Fisheries of Japa 



N 



3 6 3 



of their time to fishing and the rest 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 

 dependence on fish are varied. The in- 

 genuity and industry of the race, and 

 the spirit of frugality which compels the 

 saving of every product of the water, are 

 prominent. Geographical features have 

 been potent in developing the fisheries, 

 the numerous islands and the great 

 length of the coast line bringing a large 

 part of the population within easy reach 

 of the sea. There are few places in the 

 entire empire where fresh fish may not 

 be had daily, and this, too, without the 

 aid of railroads or ice. This extension 

 of the empire diagonally through 35 de- 

 grees of latitude and 38 degrees of lon- 

 gitude is accompanied by a wonderful 

 variety of water life. One thousand 

 species of fishes are already known, and 

 the other classes of sea life are corre- 

 spondingly well represented. To all of 

 this is to be added a great abundance of 

 most useful products, some peculiar to 

 the inshore waters, and other high-sea 

 species which come close to the coast in 

 immense schools and are perpetually re- 

 newed, owing to the presence of water 

 several thousand fathoms deep within a 

 few miles of the mainland. 



To the attitude of the government 

 must be attributed no small share in 

 the development of the fisheries. Since 

 the restoration the control of the in- 

 dustry has been vested largely in the 

 central government, and everything has 

 been done that the most enlightened 

 civilization could require to promote 

 the welfare of the fishermen and the 

 growth of their business. With char- 

 acteristic progressiveness, officials have 

 been sent to America and other coun- 

 tries to study fishing and fish culture, 

 and the best methods of foreign lands 

 have been adopted by the Japanese, as 

 far as applicable to local conditions. 

 The Imperial Fisheries Bureau, a branch 



of the Department of Agriculture and 

 Commerce, is splendidly organized and 

 ably administered by specialists in biol- 

 ogy, fish culture, economic fisheries. 

 The work is conducted on modern lines, 

 with great stress laid on scientific in- 

 vestigation as the basis of fishery legis- 

 lation and promotion. 



The imperial government and the 

 various local governments fully appre- 

 ciate the importance of experimental 

 and biological stations, and many of 

 these have been established and are 

 now doing excellent work. Most of 

 the stations or laboratories are com- 

 pletely equipped with canning appara- 

 tus, and experiments are constantly in 

 progress to develop methods of preserv- 

 ing all kinds of fish products to better 

 advantage than now. 



An institution to which the Japanese 

 can point with great pride is the Impe- 

 rial Fisheries Institute, in the outskirts 

 of Tokyo, on Tokyo Bay. I gave a 

 talk before the faculty and students of 

 the institute on our fishery work in the 

 United States. After I had been shown 

 about the place and seen something of 

 the equipment and methods, I was com- 

 pletely overwhelmed and had no hesi- 

 tation in announcing that no other 

 country possessed an institution which 

 could compare with this one in compre- 

 hensiveness of curriculum, thorough- 

 ness of instruction, and completeness 

 of equipment. The plant covers nearly 

 nine acres, of which the dock occupies 

 one and a half acres and the buildings 

 more than two acres. The work ex- 

 tends through three years and com- 

 prises three courses, any one of which 

 may be selected for special study by 

 students in their third year, each course 

 occupying ten full months. 



The department of fishing includes 

 the following subjects in its regular 

 curriculum : Methods of fishing, navi- 

 gation, seamanship, shipbuilding, me- 

 teorology, oceanography, applied me- 

 chanics, applied zoology, applied botany, 



