The fishing season for snow crabs began on Friday in the Sea of Japan off Fukui Prefecture.
Boats carrying the renowned winter delicacy unloaded their haul at ports in the prefecture.
The season's first large vessels fishing for Pacific saury have arrived at a port in Hokkaido, northern Japan, with a combined haul amounting to only about one percent of last year's volume.
Two large ships with displacements of over 100 tons returned to Hanasaki Port in Nemuro City on Wednesday. The port has had Japan's largest catches of saury for 10 years in a row.
A Japan Coast Guard patrol ship has left for waters off the Senkaku Islands, where Chinese fishing boats were seen operating on Monday.
The patrol vessel departed from Ishigaki Island in Japan's southwestern Okinawa Prefecture. This came after Beijing on Sunday lifted an annual fishing ban in the East China Sea, including waters off the Senkakus.
Summer fishing for octopus is at its peak in the Kanmon Straits off Kitakyushu City in western Japan.
The mollusks from the area are known to be fat, chewy and sweet as they grow in fast-moving, churning tides.
Japan has lodged a protest with China over Friday's chase of a Japanese fishing boat by two Chinese patrol boats that intruded into Japanese waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide says the government will strongly urge China to respond positively without undermining cooperation between the two countries over the coronavirus pandemic.
A Japanese fishing boat that was seized by the Russian border guard last week has returned to its homeport in Nemuro City, Hokkaido.
The No.68 Shoyo-maru had six crew members. It was seized last Wednesday and taken to Russian-controlled Kunashiri Island after an inspection.
Russian authorities say they have released a Japanese fishing boat after detaining it last week.
The authorities say they freed the No.68 Shoyo-maru on Monday after receiving a deposit.
Russian authorities say they expect the captain of a Japanese fishing boat to be fined for violation of a fishery agreement between the two countries.
Border authorities in Sakhalin in Russia's Far East said on Thursday that they have found an undeclared catch of 714 kilograms of ray fish on the No. 68 Shoyo-maru.