01-05-2025
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.
