Latest news with #FisheriesAgency
Japan Times
01-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan's Dentsu to promote tuna-grading AI tech overseas
Advertising giant Dentsu will promote in foreign markets an artificial intelligence technology that can assess the quality of tuna. Dentsu hopes that countries with tuna fishing industries will adopt the technology, called Tuna Scope, which has been put into practical use in Japan only recently. Tuna Scope is a smartphone app that can immediately grade tuna on a three- or five-level scale. Dentsu and others developed the app through deep learning, feeding it with cross-sectional images of tuna tails that are often used to assess tuna quality, as well as data on grading given by veteran tuna evaluators. The technology was put into practical use in 2019, mainly for frozen tuna. It has been utilized by Japanese fishery processing companies, conveyor belt sushi chains and supermarkets to score and sell tuna. Some stores are displaying tuna sashimi with promotional materials touting that they are "AI certified." This summer, Dentsu will launch a pilot project with support from the government-backed Japan International Cooperation Agency to see if Tuna Scope can be used to evaluate fresh yellowfin tuna in Indonesia. The Southeast Asian country is the world's biggest tuna producer. According to Japan's Fisheries Agency, Indonesia's tuna output, mainly comprising yellowfin tuna, stood at around 345,000 tons in 2022, far exceeding the 197,000 tons logged by the second-placed economy of the European Union and Britain. However, the Indonesian market "has few people who can grade (tuna), so it can't be said that the fish quality is evaluated appropriately there," a Dentsu official said. The use of Tuna Scope will "enable local fishers to receive more appropriate compensation," the official added. Indonesia exports a large volume of yellowfin tuna to Japan. A major destination is the Nagoya Central Wholesale Market's Honjo main market, where demand for the fish is high. Wholesale prices in April varied vastly, ranging from ¥230 to ¥2,000 per kilogram. "We can't be sure of the quality of the fish until they arrive, so we'd appreciate if the accuracy of graders (in Indonesia) would improve," a market source said. A Dentsu team is set to visit the country as early as July to collect information. The company hopes that Tuna Scope will be introduced in earnest next fiscal year. "We will make efforts so that Japan, the world's largest tuna consumer, thinks that Indonesian tuna is tasty," an official said.
The Mainichi
25-04-2025
- Business
- The Mainichi
EU mulls imposing trade restrictions on all eels under int'l treaty
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The European Union is preparing a proposal to impose export restrictions on all eel species under an international agreement regulating trade in endangered species, EU sources said Wednesday -- a move that could affect supplies to Japan, which has relied heavily on imports. The proposal, if approved at the conference of the parties to the Washington Convention to be held in Uzbekistan later this year, would place Japanese eel for consumption, among other species, on the list requiring an export permit issued by the exporting country, the sources said. The European eel has already been subject to such restrictions following an EU proposal to list the endangered species under Appendix II of the convention approved in 2007. At the time, the EU argued that the mass harvesting of juvenile eels and their subsequent export to Japan via aquaculture facilities in countries such as China was contributing to population decline. The ongoing smuggling of European eels appears to have led the bloc to conclude that including visually similar species is necessary for effective enforcement. It also argues that the proposal would help normalize trade in Japanese and American eels, which has faced criticism over opaque practices. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, species listed in Appendix I are prohibited from international trade for commercial purposes in principle, while those in Appendix II are deemed as species that could become endangered if trade is not strictly regulated. The EU is seeking to list all 19 eel species and subspecies in Appendix II, including the Japanese eel, American eel and Southeast Asia's Anguilla bicolor. The regulations would apply not only to live juvenile glass eels but also to processed products such as "kabayaki" grilled eel. The EU is likely to decide by early June whether to submit the proposal, according to the sources. Approval requires a two-thirds majority of countries casting a vote, but the current level of support remains unclear. Japan's Fisheries Agency is lobbying the EU to forgo the proposal and plans to oppose it if submitted.
