There are about 1, 500 fishing ports used for bases of off-shore fishing and pelagic fishery in Japan. They may be classified into three patterns according to their processes of development and regional conditions.
The first pattern is seen typically in the trawl fishing ports of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture. People of these ports primarily consisted of imigrant fishermen from other fishing villages and wholesale dealers of landing fish. The former accomodated with capital and the latter monopolized the sale of landing fish. Then, wholesale dealers acquired the superior position in these ports and their enterprises were managed under the system of company together with fishermen.
The second is seen typically in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, a base of trawl fishing, and Misaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, a base of tuna fishing. They developed as ports of land-ing fish brought by fishing boats from other bases. Although wholesale dealers attached to these ports, they did not set about fishing. Afterwards, many of these fishing boats which had their bases in other places moved their bases to these ports.
The third is seen in the fishing ports that have developed into fishing bases from local fishing villages. A typical example of this type is Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture. Ports of this type are more than the other two types in number. These ports also had both wholesale dealers and fishermen, not imigrant. However, in this case solidarity of fishermen is stronger than that of wholesale dealers. They came gradually to have the right for the sale of fishing products through organizing the fishermen's cooperatives.
The first and second types of fishing ports were formed earlier than the third. Ports belonging to the third have been formed in recent years. The opinion of some geographers of fisheries that almost all Japanese fishing ports belong to the first and second types, must be re-examined.
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