Japan's Most Famous Tuna Buyer Says He Turned Somali Pirates into Fishermen

In the years when Somali piracy surged - peaking at 237 attacks in 2011 - foreign trawlers had emptied nearshore fisheries and many displaced Somali fishermen turned to hijacking to feed their families. Kiyoshi Kimura, Tokyo restaurateur nicknamed the Tuna King, went to Somalia around 2012 and says he treated piracy as a supply problem: he provided four fishing boats, taught crews to catch yellowfin, helped set up shore-based freezing capacity, encouraged Somali engagement with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, and guaranteed to buy their catch at stable prices. Kimura’s background as Japan’s most visible tuna buyer (he paid a record 510 million yen for a bluefin in 2026) frames his intervention as both practical commerce and high-profile promotion.

Piracy declined sharply after 2011 - attacks fell from 237 in 2011 to 75 in 2012 and 15 in 2013, with hijackings effectively ending by 2015 - but international maritime authorities attribute the collapse to warship patrols, hardened vessels, private security and better Somali governance. Kimura’s program is unmeasured outside his own interviews, and four boats cannot be equated with a national industry shift. Popular narratives crediting a single sushi magnate oversimplify a multifaceted solution: both naval pressure and local fishing initiatives likely played roles, and Kimura remains the only known private buyer who tried the latter on the ground.