Fisherwomen Shining in Male-Dominant Industry in Japan

By Yuya Yamamoto

Owase, Mie Pref., March 3 (Jiji Press)--Maki Kanazawa, 31, has realized her long-held dream of becoming a fisherwoman in a central Japan area where women had been banned from boarding a fishing boat by tradition.

Kanazawa, who loves fish since she was a child, dreamed of becoming a fisherwoman and majored in oceanography at university. But she had to give up her dream once due to opposition from her family.

While working for a department store and a shipping company, however, she obtained ship and radio licenses. She learned about fixed-net fishing company Haidaoshiki of Owase, Mie Prefecture, central Japan, at a fishers’ seminar for women and started working for the company after several days of experience.

Before dawn on a January day, an operating fishing boat of the company was raising its fishing net. Aboard the vessel, Kanazawa, who is in her second year at the company, skillfully scooped up fish rising to the sea surface.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]