Freshwater fishing for largemouth bass has been a recreational sport in the United States as long as people have been fishing here. The industry for bass fishing grows each year in the United States due to the increasing demand every year for the artificial plastic lures that are used to catch the fish. Curiously one of the most prominent fishing lure companies in the United States is Japanese. Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits sells lures from many lucrative American sporting outlets, such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and Cabelas. Yamamoto baits are even sold at Walmart. As a fairly regular bass fisherman, I was curious as to how it was that a Japanese company decided to enter a somewhat limited North American hobby market.

At some point the North American Largemouth Bass was introduced into Japanese freshwater systems. The fish is now regarded to be an invasive species and has multiplied rapidly in the short amount of time that it has existed in Japan. The Japanese became avid bass fisherman much like the Americans. The rapid adoption of this sport is reminiscent of Japan’s love for baseball, another American import. Baseball is now a wildly popular sport in Japan and although the teams in Japan are certainly no match for their American counter parts, it certainly seems that baseball isn’t leaving the island nation any time soon. The same can be said of the largemouth bass and the surrounding sport industry.

While the Japanese have typically sought after saltwater fish, the largemouth bass all but created the freshwater fishing craze in Japan. While oceanic fishing is almost always an expensive endeavor, largemouth bass can be fished at little to no cost. With the rise of Japan’s middle class following World War Two, and the exploding fish population, bass fishing became a common for Japanese. This in turn created a market for fishing products, which Gary Yamamoto’s company dominates in Japan, though he is certainly not without competitors. Recently the largest ever Large-mouth bass was caught in Japan by an amateur angler. The fish weighed in at nearly 22 and a half pounds, narrowly surpassing the long held American record. It seems that Japan’s bass fishermen may have surpassed the prowess of the American anglers, and may be poised to surpass American businesses in this niche market as well.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/2011/06/02/bass-fishing-in-japan/