The Japanese cormorant (Phalacrocorax capillatus), also known as Temminck's cormorant, is a cormorant native to the east Palearctic.
It is migratory, and has been observed to dive to significant depths for food.
It has a black body with a white throat and cheeks and a partially yellow bill. Juveniles are plainer and browner, typically so for a cormorant. It is one of the larger cormorants, somewhat similar in size to the great cormorant. They measure in length with a wingspan of and may weigh .
It is one of the species of cormorant that has been domesticated by fishermen in a tradition known in Japan as ukai (éµÂ飼) (literally meaning 'raising a cormorant'). It is called umiu (ã¦ãÂÂ㦠sea cormorant) in Japanese. The Nagara River's well-known fishing masters work with this particular species to catch ayu.