Despite frequent flare-ups, the fishing disputes in Northeast Asia are not expected to lead to real fighting. Both Tokyo and Moscow said gradually warming relations between the two would not be affected by last month's skirmish. But the conflict over fish has emerged as one of the region's toughest problems in the post-Cold War era. Powering the dispute has been Japan's insatiable appetite for fish. The country consumed a mammoth 10.8 million tons of seafood in 1998, the latest statistics available, the Japanese government says.
Japan is fourth in the world in per capita fish consumption.
Japan's neighbors also gobble fish. In South Korea, where the economy is only now coming back after the Asian financial crisis, 2.7 million tons of seafood were consumed in 1999. The Russians took in about the same amount that year. Seafood wholesalers prepare their wares at Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market. Tokyo's enduring claim to the islands has been at the top of the agenda for talks on warming ties between the two countries and finally settling a peace treaty officially closing that war.