The probable reason that nobody at Mikimoto wanted a writer to go to the pearl farms of Ago...was because something terrible was happening in that bay. Since the 1990s, pollution has been pouring into the water, partly as a result of careless husbandry but also from untreated sewage from all the hotels that bring people in to enjoy the 'unspoiled wilderness'. No wonder the Japanese farmers were pulling out their oysters after just nine months: any longer than that and they risked losing most of their stock to the effluent in the water--it was killing the akoya oysters... Similar things are happening in Lake Biwa... Thanks to the pollution in the area, production at Lake Biwa has now declined almost to the point of nonexistence.