In 1970, a research team at Kinki University’s Fisheries Laboratory in Wakayama Prefecture was handed what was believed to be an impossible task — to create technology that would support the fully-closed life-cycle aquaculture of bluefin tuna.

Joining a number of rival domestic universities and organizations as part of a government-backed project, Kinki University was given just three years to succeed.

In reality, however, it took more than three decades to complete its objective.

Kinki University’s Fisheries Laboratory was founded in 1948, just three years after the country’s defeat in World War II. During a time of poverty and profound food shortages, the research center was built based on the catchcry of the university’s inaugural president, Koichi Seko: “Cultivate the seas!”

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