Famed for its good surf and white sand, the municipal beach of Katsuura in Chiba Prefecture teems with 200,000 to 300,000 visitors in normal years. But for Yuki Yoshino, 23, a staffer at the city ...

A simple pier, almost at water level, extends 160 meters out into Tokyo Bay from a beach in Minamiboso, Chiba Prefecture. In the early 1900s the pier was used for landing fish, but that stopped ...