Salmon’s 14-year reign at sushi chains exposes structural mismatch between Japan’s fisheries and consumer markets.
Imported salmon has topped popularity rankings at Japan’s conveyor-belt sushi chains for 14 consecutive years, a statistic that, according to a senior fisheries journalist, highlights a widening gap between Japan’s domestic fishing industry and the realities of modern food retail.
Daigo Kawamoto, fisheries bureau chief at Jiji Press and a reporter who has covered Japan’s fishing sector for more than three decades, argues that salmon’s dominance is not primarily a matter of changing tastes. Instead, it reflects how efficiently imported, farmed fish fits the needs of supermarkets and mass foodservice, while domestic fisheries struggle to supply consistent, year-round products in consumer-ready formats.
Drawing on data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ household survey, summarised in the FY2023 Fisheries White Paper, Kawamoto notes that the species most frequently purchased by Japanese households has shifted markedly since the late 1980s. Squid, once the most consumed fish, has been overtaken by salmon, followed by tuna, yellowtail, shrimp and squid.
The Fisheries Agency attributes part of this shift to improvements in logistics and refrigeration, which have expanded nationwide access to species that were previously limited by geography. Kawamoto adds that the rise of imported salmon, including farmed Atlantic salmon from Norway and coho salmon from Chile, has been decisive because these products offer stable volumes, predictable pricing and fillet-based formats suited to retail and restaurant chains.
By contrast, several domestic species have been hit by poor catches, rising prices and greater supply volatility. Pacific saury and Japanese flying squid, once staples of household consumption, have seen demand weaken as landings have fallen. Even where substitutes exist, they often lack the scale or consistency required by large buyers.
Kawamoto argues that this has created a structural mismatch. As consumers increasingly buy processed and ready-to-cook fish, Japan’s fisheries, still heavily oriented towards seasonal and whole-fish supply, have failed to adapt quickly enough. Imported farmed seafood has filled the gap.
The result, he warns, is a feedback loop in which declining demand for domestic fish discourages investment and further weakens the sector’s ability to compete. Salmon’s long-running popularity at sushi chains, in this view, is less a triumph of imports than a signal that Japan’s fisheries have yet to align production, processing and distribution with contemporary consumer markets.
