The efforts by young fishermen engaged on fish culturing on the Uwa Sea, west of Ehime Prefecture, may offer an example of a new direction that Japan's fishing industry should take in making itself vibrant. In 2009, the Ehime Prefectural Government started a system of certifying fishermen younger than 45 years old who have completed a course to learn the latest fish culture and sales techniques.
So far, 45 people have been certified and 29 of them have established their own fishing cooperative called the Ehime Nintei Gyogyoshi (certified fishermen) Cooperative Union.
About 50 years ago, the culturing of young yellowfish and pearls started in the Uwa Sea. Because of its conditions — a deep sea, long coastline of narrow inlets, nine islands and the Kuroshio Current's inflow from the Pacific Ocean, the area became Japan's center of fish culturing. But its future became clouded with the deterioration of the sea environment due to accumulation of feed and the formation of red tides. Following the burst of the economic bubble, even prices of red sea bream, a highly prized fish, started tumbling.