r/interesting • u/angel_knight79 • 1d ago

Intriguing Kiyoshi Kimura and his effect on Somali piracy

Post image

He was, and is, the owner of Kiyomura Corporation, which runs the Sushi Zanmai chain across Japan. In Tokyo he is known as the Tuna King, because every January he buys the most expensive fish at the first auction of the year at the central market.

23.6k Upvotes

60% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

58

u/This-Construction926 1d ago

no he didn't .. International anti-piracy measures (i.e treating pirate ships as target practice) did

16

u/mondaymoderate 1d ago

Also just avoiding that area

2

u/HigherThanWitchTits 1d ago

Ships don't generally avoid the Somali basin or the Horn of Africa since the Suez canal is such an essential trade route. If just avoiding the area was a practical solution it wouldn't be an issue to begin with.

2

u/monocasa 1d ago

It was more that China took over.

NATO quit their anti-piracy mission in the area in 2016, but China built their first overseas naval base in 2017 in Dijibouti specifically for anti piracy operations, and is still there.  That was actually the first offensive mission outside of Chinese (or disputed) territory.

12

u/JX_JR 23h ago

NATO quit their anti-piracy measure because they had already done the work and piracy had dropped by more than 90% from the peak years and had remained low for half a decade. Giving China the credit because they established a base 5 years after Somali Piracy was fully under control is like crediting Drake for popularizing rapping. 

0

u/monocasa 22h ago

China was part of Operation Ocean Shield too.

They just continued the fight after NATO bounced.

3

u/Cautious-Extreme2839 17h ago

They aren't continuing the fight, they're attempting to influence and colonise Africa.