Changes in Family-Run Fishery Business in the Sanriku Region during the Recovery from 2011 Tsunami: A Case Study of an Oyster Farming Community in the Oshika Peninsula

Fourteen years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the coastal fishing industry in Sanriku has returned to its pre-disaster state. This paper reports on changes in the management and maintenance of family-run businesses before and after the earthquake, using the Ishinomaki-Toubu Fisheries Cooperative Association (FCA) in the Oshika Peninsula of Miyagi Prefecture as a case study. Before the earthquake, in the Ishinomaki-Toubu FCA, a family-run business combining oyster farming and boat fisheries was the foundation of the business, and there were some successors. However, after the earthquake, Wakame seaweed farming was introduced, and the type of fishery in the family business changed. In terms of management outcomes, regarding the individual management changes in the family business units, excluding those fishery households that have retired or downsized because of aging, the sales of fishery households increased compared with before the earthquake. Wakame seaweed farming has been actively introduced by households with successors. Nevertheless, the changes in the management of family businesses after the earthquake were not uniform but differed depending on factors such as the labor force and age composition of each household. Finally, the Miyagi Prefectural FCA, which oversees the Ishinomaki-Toubu FCA, is taking a new direction in maintaining family business entities, including allowing commuting fishers.