AQUATIC HABITAT TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION IN JAPAN

Japan's Ensei Program, launched in 1976, aims to develop a whole new g eneration of technologies which will help ensure a stable supply of se afood for Japan into the 21st century. Through this program, Japan hop es to convert its fishing emphasis from foreign waters to domestic wat ers, and from the conventional catch-wherever-you-can approach to the enhance-the-stock-and-control-harvest approach. Backed by government s ubsidies and pulling resources from government, industry and academia, the Ensei Program has already made a number of notable technological advances. This paper reviews these advances based on the lectures pres ented at the Japan-U.S. Symposium on Artificial Habitats for Fisheries , June 1991 in Tokyo, a keynote lecture presented by M. Nakamura, and a special session on Japanese habitat technology at the Fifth Internat ional Conference on Aquatic Habitat Enhancement in November 1991 at Lo ng Beach, California.