Japan’s fishing sector seeks to reinvent itself

Choitsu and Katsumi Abe toil daily to help clear a small cove of debris in Minamisanriku created by March’s devastating tsunami in north-east Japan, so they can start cultivating scallops and seaweed again.

Even before the disaster, it was far from a lucrative family business. So meagre were the returns from this aquaculture that their son, Choki, was unable to join the business. But the couple, already in their mid-seventies, need the money to supplement their pensions that alone are not enough to live on.

“If we don’t clean the sea then we can’t cultivate, and our pensions aren’t enough,” Mrs Abe says. “We’ve got no savings”.

The Abes are not alone in their plight. Six months on from Japan’s most deadly disaster since the second world war, many in the fishing sector, one of the main industries in the north-east, face rebuilding businesses that were already barely profitable.

“If there was a way to work in the sea that allowed for bigger volumes of production then it might be worth it,” says Choki Abe. “I don’t have the money to invest in that sort of thing.” The tourist boat he operated for a local hotel was swallowed by the tsunami and he also has no savings, so is anxious about his own future.

The revitalisation of the fishing industry in this region is important because the seven coastal prefectures most damaged by the tsunami account for between 40 and 55 per cent of Japan’s total fishing and aquaculture, according to the agriculture ministry. And Japan is keen to increase food self sufficiency as well as build a brand for quality food exports. Mr and Mrs Abe had started exporting small amounts of seafood to a Korean company before the tsunami, but they do not know if they will get another chance.

Experts say that the March 11 disaster should be a catalyst for the region to reinvent itself, and the accompanying fishing and farming industries.

“This is a chance to develop an efficient industry and it needs the private sector to create primary industries that are competitive and a ‘Japan Brand’ we can export,” says Chiharu Fujita, an expert in business continuity plans at Tokyo-based consultancy CFRMC.

But the danger is that the region simply returns to a lesser version of its former self, Mr Fujita says. Already a backwater, contributing just 4 per cent to the broader economy, the north-east needs a reinvention of existing industries and the introduction of completely new ones to encourage the younger generation to stay, stemming the annual outflow to Tokyo.

The central government has a broad proposal to introduce new businesses such as renewable energy. It also plans to rebuild the region’s fishing industry, to make it more efficient and to introduce fishermen and women to companies with technical knowledge. However, many local authorities have yet to start executing concrete reconstruction plans based on the proposal, the ministry says.

In Miyagi, the prefecture where Minamisanriku is based, the local union that administers production and handles the vast majority of the prefectures’ seafood sales says it is still trying to repair damage it has suffered before it can execute rebuilding measures.

Fishing businesses will have access to long-term loans to rebuild, provided by the local unions and the government.

But just as vital will be the guidance and training in running businesses that could help families to revive their fishing businesses in a more profitable way, or to consider leaving fishing and starting something new.

Oki Matsumoto, one of Japan’s best-known entrepreneurs who founded the country’s largest retail online brokerage, says that the north-east needs to take a more entrepreneurial approach to reviving fishing and the region’s industries in general, one that would encourage outside investment instead of relying on loans and other forms of debt for rebuilding.

“We should try and create something in Tohoku that makes returns; a completely new fishing factory, using Norwegian technology for example,” Mr Matsumoto says. “We are lacking that kind of equity way of thinking. Whatever happens, we first think about borrowing money.”

Choki Abe, for example, is keen to run his own business, but says he lacks both the know how and the money. “I don’t even have Y1,000 to my name”, he says. “Do you know anyone who can teach me?”