Autumn is my favorite time of year, and it's also the season for one of my favorite saltwater game fish, the hard-fighting Japanese yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata). A member of the jack family, this is the best-known and most widely distributed of three very popular and closely related sport fish in Japanese waters, the other two being the kingfish or yellowtail (Seriola lalandi) and the greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili).
A highly valued food and game fish, the Japanese yellowtail can be found from Hokkaido to Taiwan. In Japan, this fish is known by a wide variety of names. In eastern Honshu around the Kanto region, fish in the 15-30 cm range are called wakashi, those of 40-50 cm are called inada, those from 60-70 cm are called warasa, and yellowtail weighing more than 7 1/2 kg are called buri. In the Kansai region, the same fish are referred to as tsubasu, hamachi, mejiro and buri respectively. To further complicate this name game, yellowtail that are raised commercially by aquaculture are sold throughout the country as hamachi.