Japan sails close to offshore wind snags as fisheries, tech challenges lurk

TOKYO -- The fate of Japan's grand plan to tap into its plentiful wind power resources hangs on the 800-kilometer cable it needs to build to connect the populous center of the country to turbines off its northwest coast. It also depends on a 20-centimeter fish.

What happens to the perch-like Japanese sandfish will play a key role in whether the fishing communities of Japan's northern Akita prefecture agree to accept having 264 km of coastline, where the species breeds, dotted with 160 or so giant turbines just offshore over the next few years.