Viable counts of bacteria were determined on food fishes with two different culture methods； 35℃ incubation of standard-agar-plate and 20℃ incubation of nutrient-agar-plate after inoculation of aseptically diluted food fish samples. Eighty five specimens of raw fishes, sashimi, and defrosted fishes were collected from retailers in Shimonoseki city. Most of the counts determined with the nutrient-agarplate method were higher than those of the standard-agar-plate method（the official guideline method of hygienic quality). In a case of the largest difference, the nutrient-agar-plate count was two hundred folds higher than that of the standard-agar-plate count. Especially, the viable cell counts on defrosted fishes showed a significant difference between the nutrient-agar-plate counts and the standard-agar-plate
counts.