Fishing Boats 
IJumber and Type, Official Japanese statistics place the total 
number of fishing boats at about 355,000 in recent years of which almost 
80 percent were non-powered (Table 6). 25/ Of the 279,000 boats with¬ 
out engines in 1940 about 98 percent were less than 5 tons; thus of the 
total number, 77 percent were sailing or other non-powered boats under 
5 tons. Most of these small boats are typical Japanese ''isaribune 11 
built of wood, flat-bottomed and propelled by means of sculls and sails. 
Although the preponderance of non-powered boats ie clear, in the past 
fifteen years small boats without engines have been on tne decline and 
those with engines have shown a noticeable increase. Even in the 5-year 
period 1936 through 1940 the number of non-powered boats decreased by 
more than 25,000 and the number of powered boats increased by more than 
12,000 (Table 6). The rate of building and scrapping of fishing boats 
ie indicated in Table 7. 
In 1935 there were 2,752 boats of more than 20 tons of which 2,622 
were motor-powered, 86 steam powered and 43 sailing vessels. According 
to statistics of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association, fishing craft 
Df more than 100 tons numbered 293 in 1936 and 372 in 1939. These include 
trawlers, cold storage transport ships, bonito and. tuna boats, floating 
factory ships, whalers, and government training and experimental patrol 
25/ Some sources place the total number of fishing vessels as 450,000. 
This higher figure must include unregistered small plank canoes, rafts 
and du gouts still common in the more backward coastal villages. (This 
figure is given in Table 9). 
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