NAMIE, FUKUSHIMA PREF. ¨C The town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture, which suffered during a major earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in March 2011, has transformed into a hub for land-based aquaculture.

Although a vast area of Namie remains designated as a so-called difficult-to-return zone, where entry is strictly restricted due to intense radiation from the nuclear accident, businesses are raising a wide variety of fish onshore in the town with a goal to revive its fisheries industry through ways that are different from sea-based fishery operations.

In 2021, major factory maker JGC Japan and a company based in the Fukushima city of Iwaki jointly established Kamome Mirai Fisheries, which farms chub mackerel onshore utilizing JGC¡¯s industrial plant engineering technology. The company has received postdisaster reconstruction subsidies from the government and is exploring an optimal farming model using its unique fish-management system.

¡°There is plenty of land, and the logistics are good,¡± said Kamome Mirai chief Masanobu Osawa, 56, of the advantages of running land-based fish farming business in Namie.

Kamome Mirai began shipments of its mackerel, branded ¡°Fuku-no-Saba¡± (Lucky Mackerel), last year.

The company is in the trial stage of farming mackerel in a closed-loop onshore aquaculture system in which artificial seawater is circulated within an enclosed space, a method effective in lowering the risk of food poisoning from the Anisakis parasite.

Also in Namie, firms including supermarket company Ichii, which operates mainly in Fukushima, and major telecommunications carrier NTT East are planning to build an onshore sockeye salmon farm.

Companies such as East Japan Railway (JR East) are collaborating on the land-based farming of a hybrid of longtooth grouper, known as a high-end fish, and giant grouper at JR East¡¯s Namie Station, and plan to build a new facility in the town in the next fiscal year.

According to the Namie town government, the town has received many inquiries from businesses interested in the land-based aquaculture efforts.

¡°We hope to work with companies that have joined us and create synergistic effects by bringing together our respective strengths,¡± Osawa said.

Namie is located close to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings¡¯ Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, which sustained heavy damage in the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

In Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, a Fukushima neighbor, meanwhile, Momonoura Producer of Oyster Consolidated, set up jointly by seafood wholesaler Sendai Suisan, based in Sendai, and 15 people, mainly local oyster farmers, has brought new life to the coastal city, which was hit hard by the 2011 tsunami.

The company uses a Miyagi Prefectural Government program that grants fishery rights to firms established primarily by local fishery workers, and is involved in the entire process of production, processing and...