Japan's fishermen went on a nationwide strike on Tuesday and suspended fishing by some 200,000 boats to demand that the government provide subsidies to offset rising fuel prices, the dpa reported.
The strike was considered one of the largest in Japan's post-war history. Fish markets around the nation stayed quiet without the usual morning auctions.
Some 3,600 fishermen and unionists gathered in Tokyo from across the nation on Tuesday to demonstrate and demand that the government provide fuel subsidies.
"It's a life or death situation for us all. The more we work, the more it costs," said Shigeki Toyozaki, 62, of the Tateyama fisheries union in the central province of Chiba.
Toyozaki and his fellow fishermen in the region have been cutting their operations from one-day fishing to two hours a day.
Fuel costs have tripled in five years, but the price of fish has not been affected because it is decided by fish market auctioning, according to a nationwide federation of Japan Fisheries Cooperatives.