How to Go Fishing in Japan, as a Tourist

It is pleasing for me to see many foreign tourists in Japan, as they are not only interested in Japan but also coming to experience it by themselves. Because of the current economic environment (weaker Japanese yen,) the number of the visitors is quickly recovering to the level before Covid (reference with the graph in this page.)

If you are planning to come to Japan, I recommend that you spend some time out of the city, fishing. One of Japan’s characteristics is that everything is compact. Yes… It is the different way to express small and narrow. You will be surprised to see thousands of people walking across the street in the middle of Tokyo. It reminds you of the street in this live video, the street in front of the Shibuya Station. This is the must-see. 

In addition to this city experience, I would like you to see the other sides of Japan. Even the easy to go, family friendly fishing, can give you a different perspective of Japan. They are often not so far away from the city, and overcoming the uneasiness to visit somewhere not on your guidebook, you are about to experience something normal tourists can not get even closer.

In this article, I will introduce you to several ideas of experiencing fishing in Japan. Though it is not extensive, you can start your planning from here and expand your plan further. What you will see is the fishing rather accessible during your city trip, and I am putting aside the hard core fishing trip which is possible in Japan (for example, Taimen fishing, GT fishing, deep sea fishing etc.)

The main area shown here is Kanto or the area around Tokyo. However, most of the big cities in Japan are near the sea and not far from mountains and you can assume the similar kinds of fishing are available in other cities.

One note about the names of places. In this article, I am selecting the place names which are close to the one used in Japanese language. I believe you are easily understood by Japanese locals, when you mention the names written in this article. For example, the river name Tama-gawa is shown as Tama river on Wikipedia, because gawa or kawa means “river” in Japanese. In this article (and most of my other articles,) I use the place names in this way. For it, please allow me to mention in this way, “Tama-gawa river…” while it literally says “Tama river river.”

What kind of fish and what kind of fishing

For freshwater fishing, these are the possible target fish.

Trout (rainbow trout, cherry trout,) Carp, Crucian carp, Black bass (largemouth bass,) 

And below are the accessible target fish in the saltwater. 

Seabass (Japanese sea bass), Japanese Mackerel, Jack Mackerel, Japanese Amberjack and Mahi-mahi,  Sea Ruffe, Japanese Sea Perch, Goby and Smelt-whitings

Below, you will see the brief guide on how to fish each of these species.

Trout fishing

There are different styles of trout fishing in Japan, from the easy-to-go artificial fisheries to the mountain stream you can only reach after hours of climbing. 

For the one day excursion, my recommendation is to go to the artificial fisheries. The word “artificial” may be misleading, but many of them are made using natural rivers. While the surrounding environment is natural, these places assure easy access to the water. 

In such places, you can try the traditional style trout fishing with bait and float. Most of them have rental tackles and you can enjoy it without additional rod cases in your travel luggages. 

From central Tokyo, these are the places you can reach within a two hours train ride. Hikawa International Fishing Spot (you can read a short English article about it on this page), Akikawa International Fishing Area.

For those who want to try lure or fly fishing, there are designated areas. 

For example, Yozawa Fly Fishing Area is a good choice for fly fisherman. This fishery uses a certain section of natural river, allowing only fly and tenkara. You can see this fishery in the video below. 

I know some of you want to explore something not artificial. Then you can go further out from the city. With the express train (Shinkansen), these places are within one hour train ride, giving you the opportunity to explore the natural environments.  Tochigi prefecture, Nagano prefecture, and Gunma prefecture. All of these prefectures have a lot of things to see as well as fishing opportunities. For example, Nikko in Tochigi prefecture.

One note for river fishing in Japan is that you need to buy a day ticket to enter a river. Basically this day ticket is available at fishing shops around, and in many cases you can buy it in convenience stores near the river you are fishing.

All Japanese rivers are controlled for its resources by the local fishing organization, subsidiaries of Fishery Cooperatives. And the tickets are issued by the local branches of this organization. It means that in Japan there is no angling license covering certain political regions, instead licenses are only covering a river or two, on which the governing branch is controlling. 

It may be a little difficult to get a ticket, but it is easy once you hop in the local fishing shop. If you are interested in a certain area where you want to go fishing, please tell me and we can help you.

On top of these river trout, you can never forget fishing in a stillwater. 

As for the natural lakes, these may be of your interest. Chuzenji-ko lake, in Tochigi prefecture. It is one of the first lakes which had brown trout settled in Japan. And Ashinoko lake is also known as a good trout lake, near Mt. Fuji, which is within two hours train ride from Tokyo.

And last but not least, the Area Trout Fishing, stillwater trout fisheries is another choice to show off your angling technique to Japanese bred trouts. For the general information about the area trout fishing is in my blog post. For the places near Tokyo, Fish on Ozenji, Fishing Field Nakatsugawa, Fish up Akikawako. Fish on Ozenji is about 15 km away from central Tokyo, and train and taxi rides take you there. If you cannot spend one whole day for excursion, it may be a nice option.

Carp fishing

European style carp fishing requires a huge amount of equipment, and for most anglers, it is not practical to bring them to Japan. And, in Japan, it is not realistic to stay camping on the water for a couple of days fishing, for it is not easy to find such places nearby Tokyo.  It may reduce the fun of the original carping style, but you cannot miss the fact that carps are almost everywhere in Japanese waters.

The pioneer of the boilie carp fishing in Japan is the shop, Euro Carp. It can give you advice once you ask them. 

There are several ways to fish for carp in Japan. Float fishing and European feeder style paste bait fishing are possible. The details of Japanese style carp fishing are explained in one of my blog articles. 

Another easier way to see the carp in your hands is to go to a fishery. As carp, as well as a crucian carp, is considered to be a fish for a game in Japan, some fisheries are located in the city to attract a large number of anglers.

In Ichigaya Fish Center, you can experience whip-rod carp fishing in the middle of Tokyo. Their English home page is here.

Crucian carp

There are many fisheries for crucian carps. And some of them are in the middle of the city. To raise some of such places; Suzuki-en, Kinchan (indoor), Musashino-en, Hoya Fishing Center, Hatanodai Tsuribori Ten (indoor). These places offer rental rods, and you can experience them without your own fishing tackle. You can catch goldfish there and it can make a nice experience with children, too.

If you want to see serious Hera fishing (if you are not familiar, you can see it in my blog post,) then you can visit these places, Hachiko-en, Oyokogawa Fishing pond, Hyotan Ike, Chofu Herabuna Fishing Center, Fuchu Herabuna Center.

Black bass (largemouth bass)

While this article is showing mainly about the places near the greater Tokyo area, regarding the largemouth bass, we cannot miss the biggest lake in Japan located in western Japan. It is Biwako lake. As this lake is near Kyoto, it is easier to plan to go visit it. In this lake, the world record bass was caught, and it attracts a lot of bass anglers globally. To aim high in Biwako Lake, I recommend hiring a fishing guide with a boat.

While there are not such renowned lakes around Tokyo, there are lakes known as holding a stock of largemouth bass. These are Sagami-ko, Kawaguchi-ko, Ashinoko, Kasumiga-ura etc. But we need to keep it in mind that there are hundreds of anglers targeting this fish and fishing pressure is immense. You will know the reason why Japanese anglers developed the finesse style, when you try bass fishing here.

Seabass

Before we start looking at saltwater fishing, let me explain a little about the fishing environments. Firstly, about licenses and tickets, you do not need them in saltwater, both in off-shore and on-shore fishing. Secondly, the big cities are surrounded by piers, and unless it is stated as prohibited areas for fishing you can enjoy fishing. To make sure, it is better for you to ask a fishing shop nearby whether the place you plan to go allows you to fish.

Turning to the sea, one of the best game fish for travelers is seabass. In Japan, this fish can be fished with various methods, a traditional shrimp bait, night fishing with a float, lure fishing from the shore, lure from the shore and so on. However, as the tide and timing matters, you have to be in the right spot at the right moment, which is difficult for a visitor.

My recommendation is to take a guided boat fishing. Many of them are targeting seabass inside the Tokyo bay, with lure. At the time of reservation, you can ask about the rental tackle and types of lures you need. Some of these charter services are offering rental tackles.

Here are some of these boat services; Wakuwaku-ya, Tsuribiyori, Boat Seabass, Bay Works, SSG, F-Real, Seabass Captain, Glory Fishing, etc.

Japanese Mackerel and Jack Mackerel

To experience the local kids-friendly pier fishing, these target fish are suitable. The popular method is sabiki rigs. You can check the basic information about sabiki in my blog article. 

There are so called fishing parks. These are some of such parks.

Daikoku Sea Fishing Park, Isogo Fishing Piers, Ichihara Umizuri Park.

Another nice experience to catch these fish species is to go out with a boat. You can expect to get a decent size, and some of these boat services offer the eating experience right after the fishing.

Team Yoshinoya, Fishing Inn Yoshinoya, Asanagimaru, Shodaimaru

Japanese Amberjack and Mahi-mahi

Depending on the seasons, these fish are coming close to the shore and become the good target fish. Though fishing from the shore is quite timing dependent and hard to get good results, it is an exciting fishing experience when fishing boats are offering their fishing day for them.

Since the Sagami-wan Bay is facing the Pacific Ocean and the Kuro-shio current, warm current, flows in, it gives anglers the good opportunity to catch the fish from the south, such as Mahi-mahi.

This bay is located 20 km south from Yokohama, 1 to 1.5 hours is the trip time from central Tokyo. When you visit Tokyo around summer and can spend one day on the boat, then this could be a great chance to get these game fish.

While the summer is for the Mahi-mahi, the amberjack season is longer and available except winter. 

These are the boats which target these fish; Shojiromaru, Shimakichimaru, Tetsuomaru, etc.

Sea Ruffe, Gobi and Smelt-whiting

These fish are living very close to the shore. You can enjoy this fishing from the shore especially in summer and autumn, as well as from the boat on which you can enjoy for a longer season.

In the mouth of the rivers in the Tokyo Bay, such as Tamagawa river and Sumida river, you can target them with a whip rod or light spinning reel rod with a very light balancer rig. 

Image from a fishing industry newspaper, a river mouth of Tamagawa, for goby. This is right at the other side of the Haneda airport.

The more accessible way to catch them is to use a boat service, such as Fukagawa Yoshinoya, Kobayashi Maru, Nakakin Maru, Maruhachi, Irifune etc (they are all quite close to the central.)

And what we cannot forget after the fishing is this. Tempura of smelt whiting. 

You saw there are a lot of opportunities to go fishing near Tokyo. The fishing situation is similar to the major cities in Japan.

Why don't you include one day for the Japanese fishing experience, in your stay in Japan? If you want to try your fishing skills in Japan during your stay, there are plenty of chances to do so wherever you stay in Japan. If you want to know somewhere specific, please let me know.