4) Roles of fishing ports in the promotion of the fishing industry
○ Fishing ports are indispensable for fisheries as a place for mooring fishing vessels, acquiring supplies, repairing vessels and landing catches. There are 2,909 fishing ports throughout Japan's coast. Since coastal fisheries are developed in Japan's fisheries, about three-quarters of them are type 1 fishing ports, which are mainly used by local fishers.
○ As consumers are seeking ever safer food products today, it is necessary that fishing ports also carry out appropriate hygiene control. The Fisheries Agency supports efforts to develop hygienic fishing ports in order to increase the competitiveness of fishing ports that will serve as distribution centers of fishery products, through hygiene control measures.
[Number of type 1 to type 4 fishing ports and the scope of their use]
Number of ports	2,927	2,921	2,914	2,912	2,909
Type 1	Ports mainly used by local fishers	2,217	2,210	2,205	2,200	2,179
Type 2	Ports put to broader use than type 1 fishing ports, but which are not type III fishing ports	495	496	496	499	517
Type 3	Ports used on a nationwide level	101	101	101	101	101
Specified type 3	Type 3 ports that are specified by Cabinet Order as those that are specially important for the promotion of the fishing industry	13	13	13	13	13
Type 4	Ports on remote islands or in other isolated areas that are specially required for the development of fishing grounds or the shelter of fishing vessels	101	101	99	99	99
(5) Strengthening disaster prevention and promoting disaster mitigation in fishing communities
○ The total length of Japan's coastline is about 35,306 km. There are 6,298 fishing communities, one at about every 5.6 km along the coastline on average.
○ Many fishing communities are located in geographically disadvantaged areas such as precipitous coasts, remote islands and peninsulas. Since houses, etc. are closely clustered, they are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters.
○ Fishing ports play an important role in transporting people and supplies when land routes are cut off by a disaster. On August 30, 2013, the Fisheries Agency compiled the FY2011 basic approach to earthquake/tsunami measures of fishing ports based on the Great East Japan Earthquake.
(6) Energy conservation and use of renewable energy in the fishing industry and fishing communities
○ The national government is taking the initiative in carrying out demonstration experiments of wind power generation using floating offshore wind turbines off the coast of the Goto Islands, Nagasaki Prefecture and off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. Since it is difficult for people to be stationed at and go to and from offshore wind power plants, there are such technical challenges as maintenance of the facility, and it is also important to make adjustments with other marine users such as fishers.
Section 7: Developments toward reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake
(1) Status of reconstruction of the fishing industry and fishing communities (Overview of recovery/reconstruction of fishery-related facilities, etc.)
<<Landings>>
○ In line with the reconstruction of fishing vessels, aquaculture facilities, fishing port facilities, and processing and distribution facilities, landings of the affected prefectures are showing a recovery trend.
○ The landings at wholesale fishery markets in major production areas in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures from February 2013 to January 2014 marked 70% of the level before the earthquake (March 2010 to February 2011) in terms of landing volume, and 81% in terms of landing value.
<<Fishing port facilities>>
○ At the 319 ports affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, the landing function has been recovered for the total length of the landing pier at 172 fishing ports (54%), and for a partial length of the landing pier at 117 fishing ports (37%). Of the total length of all affected piers, 53% has been recovered (as of the end of March 2014).
<<Fishing vessels>>
○ Fishing vessels were affected in a wide area extending from Hokkaido to Kagoshima Prefectures, with the number of affected vessels totaling about 29,000. In particular, in the three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, about 26,000 vessels were affected, accounting for 91% of all affected vessels.
○ The total number of fishing vessels for which recovery (repair and new vessel building) has been completed as of the end of January 2014 was 16,945, including recovery through fishers' own efforts based on the fishing vessel insurance they were covered under.