History of fish-eating culture and latest trends in seafood consumption in Japan

YU Ke-feng1,YUAN Chun-hong2,3,KIMURA Ikuo3(1 College of Fisheries and Life Science,Shanghai Ocean University,Shanghai 201306,China; 2 College of Food Science and Technology,Shanghai Ocean University,Shanghai 201306,China; 3 Faculty of Fisheries,Kagoshima University,Shimoarata,Kagoshima,890-0056,Japan)

fish-eating culture;aquatic products processing;seafood consumption;surimi-based products;consumer preference;Japan

Japan has a long history of fish-eating culture due to the geographical features,which is comprised of many islands surrounded by sea.Fish-eating culture has been handed down and accumulated from generation to generation in eating life,centering on fish,including the techniques of catching,handling and judging fish,way of processing and preserving fish.It has been changed and developed due to the effect of many factors such as history,economic,politics,geography,and climate.In spite of the decline in the annual catch and the growth of fishery imports,the per capita consumption of seafood is still about 60 kg in Japan.In recent years,livestock meat and dairy consumption increase year by year in Japan and aquatic products consumption has relatively declined because of more westernized lifestyle.However,half of animal protein still comes from the aquatic products.In contrast,with the rapid development of economy,Chinese people are paying more attention to healthy and high nutrition aquatic products.This paper introduces the history of Japanese fish-eating culture by the analysis of the latest aquatic product households consumption statistics data and the processed aquatic products consumption changes,to introduce Japanese recent seafood culture trend.We hope that it provide some reference for aquatic products processing industry and scientific researchers in China.