THE INFLUENCE OF MODERNIZATION ON THE FISHING INDUSTRY OF OKI ISLAND

Abstract

The fishing industry of Oki Island, an isolated islandain the Sea of Japan, has had a great deal of influence from modern impacts. The author studied especially the coastal fishing carried on by natives of Oki and that carried on by emigrants to the islands. His conclusions may be summerized as follows: 1. The fishing in Oki Island in the latest stage of the feudal age was chiefly done by the fishermen of Oki. 2. Since the last period of feudal days (circa 1834) fishermen from Japan proper began to come to Oki to work. 3. Modern fishing with large amount of capital was chiefly developed by capitalists from Japan proper frown 1910 on. The major type of fishing under this system was purse seining and using trawling nets. 4. Severe pressure of the capitalistic fishing on the fishermen of the island was exerted after 1917 when there was poor catch of cuttle fish, the main haul in Oki. 5. The monopoly of the fishing of the island by outside capital was intensified after 1941. 6. Since 1946 the haul in Oki increased rapidly by using purse seines and medium trawling nets, but the pressure on fishing by old methods exerted by industrial fishing was very strong. Thus, (a) most of the haul went to other districts, so that the gross receipts of Oki decreased. (b) The coastal haul was decreased by the development of the large-scale-fishing. (c) The coastal fishing by old fishing methods is now at a disadvantage on the basis of both amount and quality compared to the capitalistic fishing. 7. The modernization of fishing in Oki island is lagging far behind, and the fishing now carried out by the native fishermen of the islands is declining.