Chris Loew

As Japan’s average seafood consumption continues to wane, the country is continuing to engage in efforts to increase awareness of local fish.  

The country’s per capita seafood consumption peaked in 2001, and has been steadily declining as younger Japanese people gravitate toward meat and more Western-style cuisine. As a result, younger people are becoming less familiar with local fish options. Compounding the issue, the

Japanese eels have been discovered inhabiting several rivers in Hokkaido, the most northern prefecture in the country and an area previously thought to be beyond the species’ range.

The Tohoku region, consisting of northeastern Honshu Island, was formerly thought to be the northern limit of the Japanese eel’s range. Scientists are speculating that a change in currents or warmer water temperatures caused by climate change have allowed

Kyoto, Japan-based Regional Fish Institute is now selling gene-edited pufferfish to the public – one of the first times a gene-edited seafood product was offered over-the-counter to Japanese consumers.

The company’s online store has been offering the product since it gained government approval in 2021. The sale of gene-edited fish is part of a wider trend in Japan toward the new technology.

Unlike the European Union, Japan

A scientific report by Morocco’s National Institute for Fisheries Research (INRH, per its French acronym) indicates the nation's cephalopod catch is down by 60 percent, most significantly in the southern part of the country, according to Morocco-based news site Le Reporter.

According Le Reporter, word in the industry is that the current decline is due to poaching by an “octopus mafia.” There has been lax enforcement of the

Mowi’s Japanese operations remain robust, despite recent supply-chain challenges and an increasingly competitive marketplace, according to Mowi Japan Sales and Marketing Director Michinori Hoshijima.

Bergen, Norway-based Mowi is by far the world’s biggest Atlantic salmon-farming company, having produced an equivalent of 449,000 gutted-weight tons (GWT) in 2021. While the company did not disclose its sales in Japan for 2021, overall,

DHA, a type of omega-3 acid, is becoming a profit driver for both Maruha Nichiro and rival seafood company Nissui – along with other chemicals derived from marine sources, including EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), chondroitin, and squalene – helping add to the bottom lines of two of the world’s largest seafood companies, both based in Tokyo, Japan.

The signs of the chemicals becoming increasingly important are highlighted in

The United Kingdom officially lifted import restrictions on Japanese food products related to radionuclides on 29 June, 2022.

The restrictions on products were introduced after the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which released radiation into the surrounding environment after the East Japan Earthquake. 

The restrictions were originally introduced as a

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries kicked off a campaign on 1 June to attract foreign visitors to rural villages.

According to a press release from the ministry, the program aims to attract inbound tourist to farming, mountain, and fishing villages by promoting the regions’ local foods and food culture overseas, under the "Savor Japan" brand.

Recruitment began for villages to apply to be designated as a 2022

Japan’s Fisheries Agency recently released its annual Fisheries Whitepaper examining the country’s seafood trends in 2021 – while also setting new policies for 2022.

The whitepaper covers a huge range of data on the seafood industry in Japan from 2021, and also includes new data from 2020 that was previously unavailable.

The whitepaper shows that per-capita consumption of seafood in Japan has dropped over the past two decades.