In 1970, a research team at Kinki University's Fisheries Laboratory in Wakayama Prefecture was handed what was believed to be an impossible task — to create technology that would support the fully-closed life-cycle aquaculture of bluefin tuna.
Joining a number of rival domestic universities and organizations as part of a government-backed project, Kinki University was given just three years to succeed.
In reality, however, it took more than three decades to complete its objective.