Japanese pilchard
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
A tightly packed school of Japanese pilchards changes shape and splits apart.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Japanese pilchard
- Scientific name
- Sardinops sagax
- Japanese name
- マイワシ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Clupeiformes
- Family
- Clupeidae
- Genus
- Sardinops
A fish that travels in large schools near the sea surface, from near the shore to offshore waters.
It swims with its mouth wide open, straining mainly tiny animal plankton through its gills to eat.
In a school, it is hard for an enemy to pick out a single fish. With many eyes watching, the school can also spot enemies early.
Where the Japanese pilchard has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- マイワシ
- 简体中文
- 南美拟沙丁鱼
- 繁體中文
- 南美擬沙丁魚
- 한국어
- 정어리
- Español
- Sardina del Pacífico
- Français
- Pilchard sudaméricain
- Deutsch
- Pazifische Sardine
- Português (Brasil)
- Sardinha-latina
- Italiano
- Sardina oceanica
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Pilchard Amerika Selatan
- Русский
- Сардинопс
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 葛西臨海水族園 — マイワシChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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