ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Early on a chilly mid-February morning, high waves rocked a fishing boat so fiercely that anyone unaccustomed to the erratic motions would have immediately gotten seasick.

Prana Firnagis, 25, who came to Japan about four years ago from his native Indonesia to work as one of the 16 technical interns at the Yamane Gyogyobu fisheries company, checked to make sure the sudden shock was not too much for his crewmates to handle.

“Are you OK?” he asked the reporter who was aboard the fishing boat. 

A crane then lifted a fishing net, revealing tens of thousands of sardines, and in a regional dialect, one crew member told another to put ice on the fish “warawara” (promptly).

Prana said understanding conversations like these is “tough because they are different from the type of Japanese I learned.”

Young trainees then leaned out of the vessel to collect cod and Japanese sea bass with hooks, haul them onto the deck and put ice on them. 

The crew did this silently in the minus 2-degree weather while they were splashed with cold seawater.

Communities along the Sanriku coast, including this one, became increasingly dependent on foreign workers like this ship’s crew in rebuilding the fisheries and seafood processing industries after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

The rural Oshika district here, for example, saw its population plummet to 2,000 from 4,500 after it was razed by the earthquake and tsunami 12 years ago, with elderly citizens making up more than 50 percent of those who remained.

Ishinomaki city had signed an agreement with the West Java provincial government in Indonesia way back in 2007 to accept technical interns in the hopes of alleviating the labor shortage and the aging workforce.

Yamane Gyogyobu, which saw its five trainees return to their homeland following the March 2011 disaster, restarted soliciting technical interns in 2012, as Japanese personnel could not be hired to operate a boat that was repaired after being damaged in the catastrophe.

“It is all down to them for our boat to be able to go out fishing,” said chief fisherman Mutsuhiro Yamane, 54, whom the young Indonesians call “papa.”

“They should be referred to as our teammates rather than human resources to assist in our recovery.”

OFF TO A ROUGH START

It was not always like this.

Residents of Ishinomaki initially found it difficult to get along with newcomers.

Their relationship with one ship owner plunged so dramatically over issues with punctuality and the way the trash was taken out that one intern had no choice but to return home halfway into the term.

But as depopulated communities along the Oshika Peninsula like this one become increasingly difficult to maintain, the young laborers brought in from outside Japan are finding ways to fit in with the locals. And some of the efforts by area residents may offer other cities lessons learned for how to prop up Japan’s aging society and shrinking workforce.

Local fishing boat owners began to visit the parents of Indonesian interns every year to help them feel at ease even after their children leave their family homes for Japan.

A nonprofit organization was also launched to extend support for interns staying in Ishinomaki. Three female staff members at the organization are affectionately referred to as “mommies” since they help trainees deal with their problems adjusting to life in Japan.

A “scholarship” program was put in place in 2013 for training fishermen. Ship owners provide funds for youth in Indonesia to take Japanese language classes and obtain qualifications needed for working in the fisheries industry.

Last summer, a mosque was completed at the base of the peninsula.

Those efforts have helped attract 800 technical interns and specified skilled workers to Ishinomaki--eight times as many as there were 11 years ago.

Some fishermen even described their interns as being like their “own children.”

NOW PART OF THE SCENERY

On the very edge of the Oshika Peninsula projecting out to the Pacific, the Ayukawahama district with its population of about 660 hosts some 40 Indonesians who came here to work in one of the world's most fertile fishing grounds.

But the interns’ lives here extend into other key community activities far beyond work.

Kumanojinja shrine sits on a hill about a 15-minute walk from the town’s lone supermarket, where some of the young interns hang out to eat snacks and chat.

Hidenori Ando, 72, the shrine’s chief priest, said he started asking local fisheries to send him non-Japanese carriers of a "mikoshi" portal shrine seven years ago, when the festival finally resumed after pausing in the wake of the disaster.

“It is no longer possible for Japanese people alone to carry the portable shrine,” Ando said.

Now, a photo of Aldi Wandiri, 23, and other young people from Indonesia carrying a portable shrine is printed on a leaflet promoting the local festival.

Fumihiko Abe, 49, an official from the municipality’s fisheries division who works on the foreign intern program, said he believes “living with foreign workers represents the way for our town to survive.”

Abe said the city should create a better working environment for them so more will choose to come to Ishinomaki, given that Japan is facing a massive labor crunch with an aging society and other towns will begin to woo foreign interns more intensely.