Chris Loew

Chris Loew

Contributing Editor reporting from Osaka, Japan

Chris Loew reports from Osaka, Japan as a contributing editor for SeafoodSource.com. In addition to writing for SeafoodSource.com, he covers Japan for stock-investing newsletter Global Investing. He co-authored a college language text, “Healthcare English:  Read, Write and Speak It.” When not writing, he proofreads Japanese-to-English translations. Chris is a 1990 graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. After graduation, he worked for two years in the purchasing department of a Japanese meat importer, and for five years as export director for two Seattle food companies, selling to customers in the Far East, and arranging shipping and export documentation for mixed containers of frozen foods.


Author Archive

Published on
July 23, 2024

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

Read More
Published on
July 12, 2024

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

Read More
Published on
June 26, 2024

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

Read More
Published on
April 26, 2024

A recent study has investigated the unique challenges of managing the global octopus fishery.

Global octopus landings in 2020 totaled 377,818 metric tons (MT), according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). China landed 27.8 percent of this total, while countries in West Africa, including Morocco and Mauritania, accounted for 24 percent of the catch.

Other large producers of octopus include Mexico, which hauled in 9.2 percent of the

Read More