The abundance of food organisms and feeding habits of larval and juvenile Japanese flounder were examined during the period from May to August in 1999August in , 2000August in and 2001 at the sandy Ohama beach, the central Seto Inland Sea. The food organisms collected with a sledge net consisted of 40 families from 18 orders, dominated by mysids, crangonids and gammarids. The mean densities of mysids, crangonid shrimp (Crangon spp.), gammarids and fish were 2.74, 6.74, 2.91 and 0.15 individuals/m 2 , respectively. The main prey of the flounder (n = 202; range of total length 9.80-75.95 mm) was mysids and small crangonid shrimp (<14 mm in body length). Prey fish availability was low, as the density of fish was low. The small crangonid shrimp was abundant, and the large crangonid shrimp, which could prey on larval flounder, was not abundant. The crangonid shrimp was important not as a predator for the flounder but as prey. The flounder preferred epifaunal mysids, Nipponomysis ornata and Anisomysis ijimai, to sand-burrowing mysids, Iiella oshimai, and avoided crangonid shrimp.