Chris Loew

Japan’s recently released Fishery White Paper for the 2023 fiscal year showed that per-capita seafood consumption in the country continues to drop, leading Japanese seafood producers to turn toward exports as the domestic market becomes ever more unreliable.

The fiscal year 2023 report highlights that per-capita consumption of edible fish and shellfish sank to a new low of 22 kilograms; nearly half of the 40.2 kilograms per-capita consumed

Amid a severe shortage of trucking capacity in Japan due to a labor shortage and logistics inefficiencies, two of the country’s biggest seafood companies – Nissui and Maruha Nichiro – are collaborating with three frozen food companies Nichirei, Ajinomoto Frozen Foods, and TableMark to establish a new logistics system.

“The frozen food industry faces unique challenges, such as the labor load on workers due to the

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

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

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