Gyoko prepare for performance | Music | 00:00 |
| MCLEOD: The raunchy sounds of Gyoko, a Tokyo band - its name means ‘fishing port'. Perhaps only in Japan, could a passion for fish lead to a career as a rock musician. Gyoko's lead singer believes he's writing anthems for a lost generation, one that's forgotten the true meaning of what it is to be Japanese. | 00:32 |
Gyoko singer | GYOKO'S LEAD SINGER: They want cheap fish, they spend money on mobile phones, games and leisure. The sense of value has been turned upside down. | 01:12 |
Gyoko performance with tuna | MCLEOD: By day the band members work at a Tokyo fish market, obsessed with tuna, they try to bring a little of their craft to their music. | 01:28 |
| GYOKO'S LEAD SINGER: You can eat anything - even the eyeballs. It's respect to the tuna to eat everything. | 01:43 |
Fish market shots | Music | 02:00 |
Auctioning fish | MCLEOD: Dawn is yet to break over Tokyo, yet here at the Tsukiji market another performance is already under way as buyers prod the tuna, the auctioneers bark the bids. | 02:12 |
Auctioneer | YUZO NISHIDA: [Auctioneer] The attraction of the job is that I can be close to fish and it's a joy to sell the good fish at good prices. | 02:30 |
Fish on auction floor | MCLEOD: Tuna is one of the world's most sought after and expensive fish. Some fetch more than the price of a luxury car. | 02:44 |
Auctioneer | AUCTIONEER: Well now, tuna on this planet is becoming scarce. | 02:54 |
Tuna | Music | 03:00 |
| MCLEOD: Japan's poaching of Southern Blue Fin Tuna, is one reason why it's so scarce. The nation's fishing fleet is rapacious. | 03:06 |
Tuna fishing | Music | 03:19 |
| MCLEOD: For the past twenty years, Japan has exceeded its legal limit. It's plundered an extra hundred and seventy eight thousand tonnes of Southern Blue Fin Tuna. Its value -- somewhere between six and eight billion dollars. In fact, Australian authorities concede the true figure is much higher - in the vicinity of 250,000 tonnes, worth in excess of ten billion dollars. | 03:29 |
| MCLEOD: The initial disbelief and indignation among Japan's fishing authorities has given way to a sense of national embarrassment and shame. | 04:11 |
| YUZO NISHIDA: Japanese vessels caught too much - overfishing illegally is a crime, and it's embarrassing. We should reflect on our conduct |
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Yuzo | and I think the Japanese government needs to act so these things won't happen again. | 04:28 |
Harada in office at computer | MCLEOD: Yiuchiro Harada is the head of O.P.R.T. - the organisation for the Promotion of Responsible Tuna Fishing. | 04:40 |
| YUICHIRO HARADA: Of course we're ashamed that the incident - the over-catch - happened. | 04:49 |
Harada | My controlling mechanism was not effective. | 04:55 |
Tokyo wharf | MCLEOD: Australia declined to launch a prosecution in the International Court of Justice. Instead Japan has accepted its Southern Blue Fin Tuna quota be slashed in half over the next five years - a tacit admission of its guilt. | 05:06 |
Harada | YUICHIRO HARADA: It's a matter of principle. Japan declared to be a responsible fishing nation | 05:21 |
Tokyo wharf | - and in order to maintain such position, once Japan admitted failure to comply with the quota then it was inevitable to accept a reduction of quota. | 05:32 |
Shirasagi patrolling waters | MCLEOD: Japan is now looking to clean up its own backyard. The Shirasagi is patrolling the waters off Kobe in central Japan. | 05:47 |
Captain Masaaki looks through binoculars | Captain Masaaki Shimojyo and his crew are at the forefront of Japan's attempts to conserve fish stocks, some now severely depleted. | 05:58 |
| CAPTAIN MASAAKI SHIMOJYO: If fishermen are left to fish without control I think there is every possibility they will fish until stocks run out. | 06:11 |
Captain Masaaki | And as a result, fishermen will be cutting their own throats. | 06:24 |
Control room of Shirasagi | MCLEOD: And the competition is cut throat. For the right kind of fish, not just tuna, there's big money to be made - illegal fishing is rife. | 06:34 |
| CAPTAIN MASAAKI SHIMOJYO: Poaching's a very malicious act | 06:47 |
| and can become a source of funds for organised crime. | 06:53 |
Tomoaki boards fishing boat | MCLEOD: Small fishing boats with their lone fishermen might seem like mere tiddlers, but with vast areas to patrol, Chief Office Tomoaki Takada is personally affronted by Japanese fishermen flouting the law. | 07:03 |
| CHIEF OFFICE TOMOAKI TAKADA: I can't forgive them. | 07:18 |
Tomoaki | I feel angry about their robbery - their thieving behaviour. | 07:23 |
| MCLEOD: As supply dips and demand grows, it's the spectre of organised crime, the notorious Yakuza that spells danger for the men of the Shirasagi. | 07:30 |
| CAPTAIN MASAAKI SHIMOJYO: Sometimes a fishing boat deliberately crashes into our ship or fishermen throw knives or other objects at us. | 07:40 |
Archive tape. Boats clashing | MCLEOD: This tape illustrates the level of danger. Little wonder Chief Officer Tomoaki Takada fears for his life and those of the crew. | 07:58 |
| CHIEF OFFICER TOMOAKI TAKADA: It's very frightening. I'm afraid someone will be killed or wounded. | 08:11 |
Tsunenori slices tuna | MCLEOD: For tuna wholesaler, Tsunenori Iida, it's the potential harm to his business that counts. Slicing quotas and a crackdown on illegal fishing, will have an impact. Wielding a knife like a samurai sword, the man known simply as ‘the boss' started work here almost fifty years ago. These days he considers China to be the major threat to the fish that's been the mainstay of his business. | 08:24 |
| TSUNENORI IIDA: It's a very limited resource, and we need to cherish it. | 08:56 |
Tsunenori | We need to worry about China - how much fish will they eat? This is my biggest concern. It's important that we value the resources. | 09:01 |
Sushi train/Diners/plates | Music | 09:13 |
| MCLEOD: Japan has only two per cent of the world's population, yet Japanese eat a chunky ten per cent of the global fish catch. The national appetite seems almost insatiable. | 09:32 |
Tsunenori | TSUNENORI IIDA: The first thing that goes in your mouth after you're born is sashimi, or fish - and I think that's how it became the food culture. | 09:45 |
Katsumi prepares sushi | MCLEOD: Immersed in the culture, is Katsumi Honda who's a sushi master. | 09:56 |
Katsumi | KATSUMI HONDA: Tuna is my hobby, and maybe my number one girlfriend. That's how wonderful it is. | 10:04 |
Katsumi prepares sushi | MCLEOD: This self-styled guru of Japan's favourite dish, runs a popular restaurant in suburban Tokyo. | 10:18 |
| KATSUMI HONDA: I can talk all day without stopping if it's about tuna. That's how much I like tuna. Work connected with tuna is everything for me. | 10:29 |
Katsumi | My life does not exist without tuna. | 10:43 |
Unloading tuna |
| 10:49 |
| MCLEOD: Some Japanese might have to get used to the idea of a life without tuna. Not only has Japan's Southern Blue Fin Tuna quota been cut, so too it's Atlantic Blue Fin quota. Finding other ways to satisfy Japan's demand, presents a golden opportunity. | 10:52 |
Amami | Music | 11:14 |
| MCLEOD: Amami, a remote island off the coast of Japan, could be crucial to the country's future tuna supply. Its sheltered and deepwater harbours contains scores of tanks and cages where tuna caught at sea are being fattened for market. | 11:20 |
Feeding tuna at fish farm | Scientists at this fish farm run by Osaka's Kinki University believe they've achieved something special. Investing billions of yen, they claim to have pioneered and perfected the technology to breed Blue Fin Tuna from hatch to hook. This massive fish has lived its entire life in captivity. | 11:46 |
Yoshio takes photo | Yoshio Okubo, the chief of this corporate venture, is naturally excited by the potential for profit. | 12:17 |
| YOSHIO OKUBO: Tuna demand is increasing now. The world will have sustainable and stable fish farms when it's based on the full cycle cultivation method. | 12:29 |
Yoshio | So I think it has the potential to make a profit commercially. | 12:47 |
Feeding tuna at fish farm | MCLEOD: The promise of the technology hasn't convinced everyone. Purists insist that farmed tuna is inferior in taste and quality to wild tuna. Sushi masters like Katsumi Honda claim they'd never sully their reputations by serving farmed tuna to their customers. | 12:55 |
Katsumi | KATSUMI HONDA: Tuna is a fish that swims around all year searching for good food. | 13:23 |
Measuring tuna | On the other hand, the farmed tuna's movements are limited inside the net. And the food - the food makes a big difference with natural tuna. | 13:32 |
Tsunenori at market examining tuna | MCLEOD: Tsunenori Iida holds the pragmatic not priggish view that consumers will eventually acquire the taste for farmed tuna. | 13:56 |
| TSUNENORI IIDA: I don't have many customers who would use farmed tuna. But I think we'll be using more from now on. | 14:06 |
Tsunenori | Natural resources are decreasing and to protect them, fish farming will increase and more shops will deal with farmed tuna. | 14:14 |
Fishing towns | Music | 14:24 |
| MCLEOD: The coastline of Japan is dotted with small fishing towns reflecting the richness of the country's cuisine and culture. Recognising this, the government is funding a scheme designed to renew the nation's domestic fishing fleet. | 14:34 |
Akira on boat | Akira Ono sees it as almost a duty to keep alive the traditions of generations. | 14:57 |
| AKIRA ONO: We can live without catching fish ourselves | 15:07 |
Akira | but historically, Japanese have caught their own fish and that has become part of the culture. | 15:11 |
Akira preparing fishing line | MCLEOD: For all the vagaries confronting Japanese fishing, including serious competition from the meat industry, the romantic notion of a life at sea hasn't been entirely lost. Recently divorced, Akira Ono has abandoned a mere twenty-year corporate career for his own sea change, to try his hand as a fisherman. | 15:22 |
| AKIRA ONO: We have a dietary habit that includes eating good fresh fish. So I think the feeling is that Japan wants to stick with that and keep catching and eating fish. | 15:46 |
Fishing port | Music | 16:01 |
Ceremony | MCLEOD: Fish is central to Japan's cultural heritage. In fishing ports and villages around the country, it's traditional for communities to celebrate the fruits of the ocean. In future, it will be cause for celebration if Japan can sustain its new found commitment to conservation.
*All dollars mentioned in this story are Australian unless otherwise stated. | 16:07 |
Credits: | Reporter: Shane McLeod Camera: Jun Matsuzono Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen Producer: Ian Altschwager Researcher: Yumiko Asada Production Company: ABC Australia, Foreign Correspondent | 16:33
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