Coastal fishing was characterized by small-scale operations 
with limited capital. Many of the fishermen were farmers who took to 
the sea only in slack seasons or fishing was the principal occupation 
of the father of the farm family while the wife and children tilled 
the soil. The entire coast of Japan was thickly strewn with little 
combination agricultural-fishing villages; two-fifths of these 
villages total earnings from fishing were more than half the earnings 
from farming.28/ Much of the coastal fishing consisted of very small 
units of operation, frequently involving a single family or several 
families. 
Although coastal fishing was important along all sections of 
the coast of Japan proper its greatest relative importance was in 
Hokkaido. This large northern prefecture accounted for about 40 percant 
of the total volume of the coastal catch, due in part to its position 
in relation to converging currents and to its disproportionately long 
coastline as compared with other prefectures. Other regions of high 
production were the Pacific coastal waters of northern Honshu and along 
the western coast of Kyushu. 
The fishing grounds in coastal waters were operated under a 
license system. For the purpose of licensing the fishing village was 
considered as a legal entity, each village being given exclusive rights 
to the waters along its shores. Most villages had their own fishing 
28 / Fritz Bartz, "Japans Seefischereien," in Petermanns G-eogranhische 
Mitteilungen , 86 (May 1940). 
- 62 - 
16-031 P86 bu 
