Ex-nurse helping revive struggling fishing business in Hokkaido

I know it's not against the law here in Japan but I just cringe when I hear stories though of people marrying their cousins!

But life changed when her cousin, a fisherman based at Otoshibe port in the town of Yakumo on Japan's northernmost island, visited her home six years ago. Yuki, 37, who later became her husband, described his worries to her as a fisherman on a sinking ship.

Congratulations to her and her family as well as their business. More stories like this are needed so more people can step out of the box and revitalize the rural regions and cut out the middle man.

More power to her! Positive role models for women are important here in Japan!

he had been unaware of how his hauls were treated after they were handed over to a local fishery cooperative

In other words, bypass the cooperative in order to offer better prices directly to the user, make more money for yourself, increase sales, and cut out one of several middle men.

How long will it be before the cooperative cuts her down to size?

This is actually pretty common in Asian cultures, not just Japan.

And I'd still be cringing as well!

Whoever wrote this was obviously not doing her a favor in this story because they didn't include any pictures like Mainichi and Kyodo News. It doesn't showcase the success.

I was thinking 'she married her cousin?' and he sounds like he was being pretty dumb about being a fisherman and not trying to learn about anything else so he got into a hole because he doesn't have enough of an education to know he was being screwed. She was 37 and he was 31. She basically bailed him out using her sales experience and then she created new jobs for people that were in the same boat. Now she's got some old dudes after her for bypassing the bureaucracy. I could see someone writing an entire manga about this.

Title: I Was A Single Parent Working in Nursing and Somehow Married My Cousin. Now I Run A Fish Company In Another Prefecture.

Good luck to them. Its important for people with primary products like fish and agricultural produce to sell direct to get more of the sales price and/or to process their produce themselves to add value. Simple produce sold into bureaucratic cooperatives won't make you any money at all.

The article says "Ryujinmaru's fish are widely used at "izakaya" Japanese-style pubs and French restaurants across the country" but has the company's earnings (presumably profits, not sales) at 5 million yen a year. With the greatest respect, that's not a lot of money for a company with a "widely-used" product. There are only so many French restaurants and izakayas for the fishing industry to sell to, meaning that this is not a model many others can emulate.

I know it's not against the law here in Japan but I just cringe when I hear stories though of people marrying their cousins!

This is actually pretty common in Asian cultures, not just Japan.