Datja concerning the distribution of fishing boats by prefectures 
is presented in Sable 5; unfortunately this regional breakdown by type 
and size of boats is not available. Hokkaido leads in total number 
with more than 58,000 boats in 1937 and Nagasaki, Chiba, Xhime and 
Yamaguchi prefectures each had more than 15,000 fishing boats in that 
year. 
fishing Ports 
The coasts of Japan are thickly strewn with small fishing villages, 
many of them combination agricultural-fishing villages. These are the 
true fishing ports of Japan at which about 50 percent of the total 
catch i8 landed. In the parts of the country which have been long 
settled (Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku) the distribution of these "ports" 
is closely related to the location of economically valuable coastal 
fisheries. In these three main islands no coastal area adjacent to 
good fishing grounds lacks fishing villages; even the most inhospitable 
stretch of coast has settlements proclaiming their trade by the fishing 
smacks ("isaribune") drawn up over the sloping rocky shore. These 
conditions, however, do not prevail in the northern areas (Hokkaido and 
Karafuto) which were settled intensively only after the middle of the 
last century. 
Although the fishing products of the coastal waters enter Japan 
through a thousand or more villages, the deep-sea fleets are based on 
a few leading harbors. These bases are concentrated in three areas: 
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