Study on Advanced Use and Social Value of Existing Fishing Port Space

In recent years, the fishery population in Japanese fishing ports has halved with a decline of the fishery industry, and the use of fishing port facilities has also been declining. Because of this, there is a demand for effective use of existing fishing ports, which have thus far served only for the primary industry, and there is a transition in their use to higher order industries, indicating a change in the social value of fishing ports. In this study, the social value for realizing the higher order use of fishing port space was analyzed based on the locations of the port, the value of the land, and social needs. Although, with the current classification, 2921 existing fishing ports can be classified into 5 categories, designated class III fishing ports (13 ports), class III fishing ports (114 ports), class II fishing ports (496 ports), class I fishing ports (2210 ports), and class IV fishing ports (101 ports), the findings of this study were applied to develop a new classification which incorporated new social conditions. In this paper, the social value of fishing ports in modern society is shown, and a new classification of fishing ports which differs from the current system based solely on the port size is discussed, taking their social value into consideration.