Freezing 
Production of frozen fish which started in the late 1920*s has 
increased greatly in recent years. Bat even though Japan*s freezing, 
cold storage and refrigerating industry was developed chiefly to he 
used for fish and shellfish, freezing was still a small Industxy. 
According to one source about 60,000 tons of fish were frozen annually — 
only about one percent of the total catch. 60/ 
In 1933 Japan proper is reported to have had 88 freezing plants 
with a total daily capacity of 860.5 tons (Table 44). Of these, 59 used 
air (ordinary sharp freezers) and 29 used brine in one manner or another. 
In addition to these freezing plants in Japan proper, there were four in 
Kamchatka (plants of Nichiro Gyogyo K. K.) and eighteen on fishing 
vessels in 1935. Some of these vessels (chiefly trawlers although 
several "freezing tender ships" of 300 - 1,000 tons) froze fish during 
the summer months and then docked at Tokyo or other large ports to serve 
as cold storage depots during the winter months. The total number of 
freezing plants as of the prewar period may be placed at more than 100 
but capacity figures are not available for later than 1933-34 (Table 44). 
Canning 
Canning was an important method of processing for the export 
market, but only small amounts of canned fish entered into domestic 
consumption. It was developed as a means of obtaining foreign exchange 
60/ Japan*8 Fisheries Industry 1939 (Special issue of Japan Times and 
Mail, 1939). 
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16-03r Pl52 bu 
