After watching a television series in junior high school about a Tokyo teenager who relocates to the Sanriku coast in Tohoku to join the ranks of the ama (female divers), Miku Higuchi was hooked.
The 19-year-old Higuchi, who recently became the first female diver in five years to debut at Mikimoto Pearl Island, is helping to attract tourists to the region by taking part in demonstrations on collecting sea urchins, pearl oysters and other shellfish in Mie Prefecture's Toba Bay.
"I would like to pass on this traditional method of fishing to many people," Higuchi said of the ama culture that used to flourish on the island.