National Research Institute of Fisheries and Environment of Inland Sea

In 1949, eight Regional National Fisheries Research Laboratories were established in Japan, to reinforce research activities on fisheries under a serious food shortage after the World War II. One of them, Naikai Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory, with responsibility for the Seto Inland Sea, was the first predecessor of the present National Research Institute of Fisheries and Environment of Inland Sea (FEIS), a department of the Fisheries Research Agency (FRA). In the second half of the twentieth century, our Institute was temporarily renamed as "Nansei Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory” (1967-1989) and "Nansei National Fisheries Research Institute” (1989-1998), additionally in charge of the Southern District of the Pacific Coast. The FEIS, renamed in 1998, is not responsible for the Southern District of the Pacific Coast any longer. In 2001, the Japanese government carried out a large-scale reorganization. With this, our Institute became subordinate to the FRA, which was established as an independent administrative organization, separated from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The FEIS was restructured to include the Hakatajima, Momoshima, Tamano, and Yashima laboratories, and established the Coastal Fisheries and Environment Division, the Research Center for Environmental Conservation, the Stock Enhancement and Aquaculture Division, and the Research Center for Marine Invertebrates in April 2011. The Tamano laboratory was closed in March 2015 and its research was redistributed to other laboratories.