ABSTRACT
Culture of Penaeus japonicus was developed in the Amakusa region of Kumamoto Prefecture. This has borne valuable results in making prawns available for marketing even during the mid-winter to early spring period when the catch of this prawn from the natural source is very low. Prawns are usually cultured in shallow ponds with a water depth in the range of 60–180 cm. Most of these ponds have sand at the bottom. While the smaller ponds cover 0.1 ha the larger ones may be as much as 10 ha in area. Japan has nine large firms engaged in prawn culture. All these follow a similar pattern of culture. The culture sites are mostly abandoned salterns or inlets and creeks with sandy bed. Besides the pattern of culture followed at these centers there is the culture method developed by M. Hudinaga.
