Overview: Japan is an island nation that stretches thousands of miles. “A country surrounded by the sea,” as one common expression has it. Perhaps not surprisingly, the country has had a highly developed fishing culture for centuries, if not millennia. It has long been a global pioneer in everything from ways to preserve freshness to forms of seafood cuisine. This is our topic for this edition of Japanology Plus: how Japan fishes its oceans, in particular its coastal seas. Our expert guest is Professor Osamu Baba of the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.