Land reform after the war was responsible for the destruction of large family holdings and family held cartels called saibatou. However, even among the less affluent, handing down property has been problematic in recent times. Handing down your boat to your eldest son was the tradition in the private fishing industries, but this is changing as fewer sons (in agriculture as well) want to continue in such arduous trades. There is so little security and so little predictability, in such work.
The old people despair of the continuance of old ways and crafts; the young want more regular employment and time to themselves. And indeed there is a significant factor now: young women do not want to marry eldest sons of fishermen or farmers, and it is work that cannot be done without women as domestic support. In some areas, farmers and fishermen are importing brides form Southeast Asia to fill the gap.
YOKOHAMA
Yokohama began as a small fishing port, but by the time Japan opened to Western trade, in the late 1850s, Yokohama was an important port. The first railway line in Japan went from Yokohama to Tokyo, constructed in 1872.
FISHING INDUSTRY
Japan's catch has recently been the largest in the world. Social studies courses in Japanese schools all have a unit teaching children the importance of the fishing industry to national resource independence.
The offshore fishing grounds, including both warm and cold currents provide copious amounts of fish of many kinds. Japanese also fish the North Pacific, the East China Sea, and the Atlantic. Even small villages in northern Maine have become acquainted with the Japanese fishing industry, and are also exporters to Japan of such north Atlantic delicacies as sea urchins and Maine lobsters. Fish is a very significant item in the Japanese diet, and the per capita consumption of marine products is the highest in the world, giving Japanese 50% of their animal protein intake.
There are several different kinds of fishing -- and the Japanese do them all. Off shore fishing is done with smaller boats, using seines, trawls, drift nets and hooks and lines. Open sea fishing is done by huge factory ships, using trawls, seines and nets. There have been some self-imposed controls on the take in the open sea, because of the 200-mile limit imposed by the US, Canada and the former Soviet Union, after 1975. To compensate, Japanese fishing industry has established agriculture, or the breeding and growing of fish in contained areas, both inland and marine. Whaling, a traditional source of foodstuff and other products of the whale, has been controlled recently by international agreements.
Traditional fishing includes angling of various kinds, the catching of octopus in special unglazed ceramic pots, dart fishing and netting. Plants and shellfish are gathered by traditional divers, most of them women, who are skilled divers for food and for pearls.
