At the Sea People restaurant in Shima, a coastal hamlet in Mie Prefecture, sea diver Machiyo Yamashita wants a piece of a tourism industry dominated by the cities that sapped her town¡¯s vitality by luring away its youth.
¡°I want to cook and serve customers abalones I caught myself an hour ago,¡± said Yamashita, 64, over a lunch of shellfish, ¡°aosa¡± sea lettuce and seaweed soup, all featuring items she found in the sea that morning. ¡°The real stuff is cheap and delicious, and has to be fresh.¡±
Attracting tourists to Shima, renowned for female divers who harvested pearls before K Mikimoto & Co. set up a farm nearby, would help the town counter the decline caused by the depopulation blighting the provinces. With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe identifying tourism as a source of growth, local bankers and officials are taking unprecedented steps to stimulate the industry.
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