Preparation to promote Water and Fishing industry kicks off

At Kozushima, we are taking actions to promote the rich water and traditional fishing village culture of the island.

In the 2020 fiscal year, we launched an English website for foreigners living in Japan, conducted a water examination, and informed about the website within the island.

For 2021, our initial plan was to build up our accommodation system to welcome in more visitors. Due to the prolonged spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the plan has been postponed. Instead, we are further refining the water brand story that we have been working on, and making preparation to promote "Kozushima water" and "Kozushima fishery."

For "Kozushima water," which everyone claims to be delicious, we thought about such things as its history/culture, locality, scientific evidence, and taste. We discussed on how to put together a story which would be acceptable to the islanders as well.

Many ideas and suggestions were exchanged, such as mentioning the history of struggling with water and appreciating water, not just telling history and culture but also adding the regional characteristics of Kozushima as well, and a hypothesis that the water's mineral components derived from the sea are carried by the westerly wind in winter.

For "Kozushima fishery," we had a discussion from four perspectives, which are fishing method /history/culture, fish species/processing/retail, philosophy/resource conservation, and people (fishers).

Out of all, history was especially of high interest. Members shared their thoughts and opinions, such as:
"We used to fish for marlin, but now it's red bream. Why that happened is interesting."
"I heard that people used to wear a sweater when diving to collect agar weed. They would gather at sea from dark hours, warm themselves up with a bonfire, and go into the water at dawn. I want to share fishery stories that no longer exist, of the time when fishing was closely linked with everyday living."
"History would fade away if it's not told. I want to preserve the island's history. I want to hear stories from the very elderly, someone who is, so to speak, a walking dictionary of the island. Then I would take a video and post in on YouTube for it to be played for 100 years."
We have settled to focus greatly on the history and locality of the industry.

We will continue to work on the stories by delving into what we want to convey about "Kozushima water" and "Kozushima fishery."