Japan is the world's leading fishing nation, not only in tonnages caught but also because of the staggering amount of fish the Japanese eat - an average of 65-70 kg each per year. Moreover, Japan boasts a maritime resource management system that differs from and in several respects seems more successful than those of Western Europe and North America. It is impossible to understand the present situation in Japan's fishing industry without having a knowledge of its past.

What is more, Japan's fishing villages played a significant role in Japan's economic development. In particular, during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868), they acted as key commercial links between the castle towns and dispersed farming communities.

1. The aims of this book, therefore, are twofold: first, to place maritime resource management within the larger context of social and material reproduction and, second, to analyse the fishing villages in the context of Japan's economic history.