2007 has been quite a year. The weather has been particularly bad throughout the year, making it difficult to get charters out. We were notified by the tax office that our sales were high, so we had to graduate from a company to a corporation. We were able to register our corporation in Japan during October, and are operating as a Japanese corporation (American Owned of course). The corporate name is SFO Group Co., LTD.
We registered the trademark in Japan for our name, Saltwater Fishing Okinawa, and logo. Our trademark is recognized internationally through the Madrid rules of trademarks. The trademark is owned by our new corporation.
Discovery Channel’s Travel division did a shoot with us for fishing in Okinawa. It is expected to air in January 2008. Don’t worry if you miss it, they have promised me a copy that you will be able to see after the program airs. Taiwanese Super Model, Janet, is the presenter for this segment. My good friend Tim Li is the producer, and James Wu is the director.
We submitted our application, which was accepted, to the Urasoe/Ginowan Fisherman’s Association in June of 2007.
“Okinawa Island Guide” featured us on a 2 page spread in their magazine for 2008-2009. This is available now at Jusco in Chatan, and will be on the bases soon. You can also purchase a copy from us for $15.
The International Game Fish Association interviewed us for a special feature in their January 2008 issue of “International Angler”.
We are getting more and more customers from outside Okinawa. The word must be getting out about the fishing here. We have had clients from as far away as Spain, London, Seoul Korea, Taiwan, Canada, and several US States, coming to Okinawa for the sole purpose of going fishing with us.
We purchased a truck with a crane and power gate this year. This has been a great help in transporting gear, fish, and lifting heavy coolers on and off the boat. With the purchase of this truck, we also bought and certified crane scales for weighing large fish like marlin and big tuna. We set up the first, and currently, the only official weigh station not only in Japan, but in the entire North West Pacific Region. There are no world record catches in Japan unless we say they are!
Now we are being approached by travel agencies wanting to contract with us for fishing tour packages. Should be interesting to see how this turns out.
A very successful and eventful year was 2007, but none of it would have been possible without each one of our clients. A very warm and heartfelt thank you to all of you, and we wish you the best year ever in 2008!
