Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus) is a schooling fish of the family Engraulidae. It is common in the Pacific Western Ocean south from the Sea of Okhotsk, widespread in the Sea of Japan, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea, and near the coasts of Japan. They live up to 2–3 years, similar to European anchovy and occurs in large schools near the surface, mainly in coastal waters but as far out as over 1,000 km from the shore. Tends to move more northward and inshore in spring and summer and spawn from Taiwan to southern Sakhalin (Whitehead et al 1988).

Japanese anchovy constitute a single stock from Hokkaido to Kyushu on Japan’s Pacific coast. A particular feature of the Japanese anchovy fishery was previously the intensive harvest of post-larvae and young juveniles, in the so-called shirasu fishery, although this has decreased in importance since the 1980s.