Chris Loew

A shopping, spa, and hotel complex recently opened alongside the Toyosu wholesale fish market in Tokyo, Japan, with the complex’s operator and the city government hoping this addition finally begins to attract more tourists to the area. “I’m confident that Tokyo residents and… Read More

Tokyo, Japan-based convenience store chain FamilyMart has launched two products that feature Alaskan seafood and bear the Alaska Seafood Marketing Association (ASMI) logo on their packaging. The new products are Salt-Grilled Natural Sockeye Salmon, sold for JPY 398 (USD 2.47, EUR 2.28), and a… Read More

U.S. sales of plant-based meat and seafood analogs declined slightly in 2023, and private spending into the sector dipped in many worldwide markets, according to the Good Food Institute’s 2023 State of the Industry Report.

“Both dollar and unit sales fell for the second consecutive year, indicating that opportunities exist to better meet consumer needs on key product characteristics like taste and affordability,” the report

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Tokyo, Japan-based seafood retail and foodservice company Uoriki recently posted large spikes in year-over-year revenue and profits for fiscal year 2023, announcing that this growth will allow it to turn its focus abroad where there are more opportunities for expansion.

As of the end of FY2023, the company operated 14 restaurants, 78 stores that sell fresh seafood – largely in greater Tokyo – and seafood supplier operations that

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Red yeast supplements manufactured by Osaka, Japan-based Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals have been linked to five deaths and at least 266 hospitalizations in Japan as of the beginning of May, spurring a larger debate about the safety of Japan’s “functional food” labels, which are placed on products, such as fish oil, sold across the country.

Kobayashi also exports its red yeast product to Taiwan, and 58 “unexpected

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Japan’s seafood exports to China plummeted in 2023, dislocating the country’s ambitious plans for export growth. In response, the Japanese government and seafood industry have scrambled to quickly find new markets and processing channels.

China imposed a total ban on seafood imports from Japan in August 2023 following Japan’s discharge into the ocean of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant; limited

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A collaboration between Tokyo, Japan-based seafood company Maruha Nichiro and Osaka Shoin Women’s College in Higashiosaka has created unique canned herring and sardine products targeting the convenience market. The partnership started after Shin-ichi Fukumaru, a sales development manager at… Read More

A Japanese university has made headway on genetically improving farm-raised eastern little tuna through a process aiming to more frequently elicit desirable traits in the fish. Ehime University’s Fisheries Research Center in Ainan, Japan, originally introduced farmed eastern little tuna to… Read More

Japanese producers of yellowtail amberjack have traditionally reared their fish on a diet of raw fish, but some farmers have begun to shift toward pelleted feed to ensure consistent quality and align with consumer preferences.

Yoshitaka Ikeda, the general manager of Amakusa, Japan-based yellowtail processor Heian Kaisan Co., said that the company now solely sells fish raised on a diet totally comprising extruded pellets (EP), in contrast to the

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Japanese exports of pufferfish to Singapore have been on the rise following a rule change – but the product is still tightly restricted to markets like the U.S. Singapore revised its requirements for imported pufferfish in August 2022 to allow the muscles, skin, fins, and milt of farmed… Read More