<Begin Segment 26>

TI: So I've read newspaper articles and, you know, I know it's been a while, a little bit but you have a new pier, or the new building.

AO: We have new facilities, yes.

TI: New facilities and everything so is this pretty much your dream or do you see more things happening in the future?

AO: Well, I don't know, in our business it's hard to anticipate or to plan too much because the government, not only our national government, but international governments are involved and they're restricting or trying to control the catches of certain species of fish, especially tuna because they feel that the supply is dwindling. There's overfishing being done especially of the best quality tuna though, the honmaguro, the blue fin in Japan, that all over the world, they're overfishing. And so they're trying to restrict the quality of such fish to be taken from the sea and even in our case, now last year they stopped our boats from fishing a certain prime area where most of our boats concentrate on doing their fishing because they say that this area is being overfished and therefore as of November maybe fifteen or so last year, they stopped our boats from going to it and they had to go some area which was not as prolific as far as the production of tunas. So for us we are controlled or we are overseen by the American government by its regulations and so forth but internationally we don't know how much control or watch is being done over their catches.

TI: So in some cases it's like a unfair playing ground.

AO: Yes, it is, well, it's definitely unfair because we observe all the rules and regulations but we don't know how much they are doing it and yet they're fishing in the same pot. So we can't make too much of a... we can't plan too far ahead because we... you know, you might hit a blank. So we just have to go along and watch and observe and see because more and more if you notice the government is just getting involved in controls, controls, controls.

TI: Well, because the seafood markets has you know increased so much, yeah, you're right, a lot of these fisheries are being overfished and there's concern about sort of sustaining them for a long term so I know there's lots of rules. You know, in the northwest it's salmon.

AO: Exactly, you've seen that there, yeah.

TI: In terms of monitoring that and trying to sustain it. But then, yeah, then there's issues with Indian rights and everything in terms of how that all works, interesting, well, good. Well, so Akira, I've finished all my questions, is there anything else that you think you should talk about?

AO: No, that's about it I guess.

TI: It's been three hours.

AO: I've told you whatever I remember as best as I could. I know some of them might not be as accurate as you may want it to be and there might be more stories but that's about it for now I guess. Thank you very much. I don't know I hope it helps plus whatever material I gave you there will help future generations anyway, you know.

TI: No, it has and so thank you very much for --

AO: But I think basically we owe it to our parents, my father, my mother. My father I know worked awfully hard, my mother worked hard, my wife worked hard, she knows what I've gone through you know.

TI: Well, I should note that when to prepare for this interview, I had to call you when you were still at work and so even though you are ninety years old, you still go into the office in the mornings.

AO: Well, I'm still in 'til two-thirty, three o'clock anyway. I feel as though the day I stop going, that's the end of my life anyway. So even though I don't do very much because like I told you I have a good management team, I have a good general manager, Mr. Goto, and good assistant manager, Brooks, and my two sons are there. My son goes to work, he leaves the house at least by three-thirty every morning, six days a week, doesn't come home until seven o'clock, you know. So he doesn't have much of a family life but being a businessman being involved in the fishing business, it's not easy, it's tough, it's tough. I've gone through it and my wife knows it, you know, spent a lot of time. Thank you very much, you know, I hope it helps somebody in the future anyway.

TI: No, it's fascinating, so thank you very much.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.