15 Years On: Fukushima Town Transforms into Onshore Aquaculture Hub

Namie, Fukushima Pref., March 11 (Jiji Press)–The town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, which suffered a major earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in March 2011, has transformed into a hub for land-based aquaculture. Although a vast area of Namie remains designated as a so-called difficult-to-return zone, where entry is strictly restricted due to intense radiation from the nuclear accident, businesses are raising a wide variety of fish onshore in the town with a goal to revive its fisheries industry through ways that are different from sea-based fishery operations. In 2021, major factory maker JGC Japan Corp. and a company based in the Fukushima city of Iwaki jointly established Kamome Mirai Fisheries Co., which farms chub mackerel onshore utilizing JGC’s industrial plant engineering technology. The company has received the Japanese government’s postdisaster reconstruction subsidies and is exploring an optimal farming model using its unique fish management system. “There is plenty of land, and the logistics are good,” Kamome Mirai chief Masanobu Osawa, 56, said of the advantages of running land-based fish farming business in Namie. Kamome Mirai began shipments of its mackerel, branded “Fuku-no-Saba” (Lucky Mackerel), last year. The company is in the trial stage of farming mackerel in a closed-loop onshore aquaculture system in which artificial seawater is circulated within an enclosed space, a method effective in lowering the risk of food poisoning from the Anisakis parasite. Also in Namie, firms including supermarket company Ichii, which operates mainly in Fukushima, and major telecommunications carrier NTT East Inc. are planning to build an onshore sockeye salmon farm. Companies such as East Japan Railway Co., also known as JR East, are collaborating on the land-based farming of a hybrid of longtooth grouper, known as a high-end fish, and giant grouper at JR East’s Namie Station, and plan to build a new facility in the town in the next fiscal year. According to the Namie town government, the town has received many inquiries from businesses interested in the land-based aquaculture efforts. “We hope to work with companies that have joined us and create synergistic effects by bringing together our respective strengths,” Osawa said. Namie is located close to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, which sustained heavy damage in the March 11, 2011, powerful earthquake and tsunami. In Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, a Fukushima neighbor, meanwhile, Momonoura Producer of Oyster Consolidated Co., set up jointly by seafood wholesaler Sendai Suisan Co., based in the Miyagi capital of Sendai, and 15 people, mainly local oyster farmers, has brought new life to the coastal city, which was hit hard by the March 2011 tsunami. The company utilizes a Miyagi prefectural government program that grants fishery rights to firms established primarily by local fishery workers, and is involved in the entire process of production, processing and sales. The firm has been active in exporting its products, mainly to Mexico and Southeast Asia, after the COVID-19 pandemic. Its earnings are steadily increasing, and young people from outside Miyagi have made visits in hopes of working for the company in recent years. “Young people have joined our company, leading to the revitalization of the coastal area,” the firm’s Takuya Nitta, 42, said. “We hope our efforts will become a model case for areas facing a shrinking population.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]