Abstract
In 1960, the Japanese-French Oceanographic Society （SFJO） was established and cooperation
with France on oceanography began. In the late 1960s, oysters farmed in France died
in large numbers due to diseases, and oyster farming was in danger of extinction. French researchers
then approached SFJO member Professor Takeo Imai of Tohoku University to see if
Sanriku oysters resistant to the diseases could be exported to France. The research team led by
Professor Imai conducted quarantine and pathological tests to succeed in exporting 10, 000 t
Sanriku single-seeded oysters （spat） to France. This export brought the French oyster farming
industry out of crisis. Subsequently, French-Japanese cooperation also extended to fisheries
science, and SFJO France was set up in 1984. On 11 March 2011, a huge tsunami hit off the coast
of Sanriku, devastating aquaculture facilities. Immediately afterwards, SFJO France and French
oyster farmers including another French groups contacted SFJO to support oyster farmers in
Sanriku in return for their spat export. These organisations and SFJO donated essential equipment
for oyster seed collection, such as microscopes and plankton nets, to the prefectural fisheries
experiment stations and prefectural fisheries cooperatives in Sanriku. This article outlines
the French-Japanese exchange on these fisheries science.
