Sushi restaurants have popped up in recent years everywhere in the world, with many Chinese restaurants rebranding themselves to ride the trend. Tokyo Tsukiji fish market is the biggest in the world and exports worldwide, with a reported 60,000 employees. Not only this culinary trend threatens complete extinction of dwindling tuna population, but contrarily to popular belief of a Japanese healthy diet, it was a hazardous treat from the start given the level of mercury in big fish like tuna. Most Japanese restaurants worldwide are fake who serve “sushi” with non-Japanese rice to indiscriminate patrons, whereas Japanese rice is so different that it is not a question of detail. Yet, this year and forever on, if you eat genuine sushi, you’ll be ingesting radiation-tainted rice and fish on top of the usual mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls. In Japan, expecting mothers are told by doctors that eating raw fish poses no special threat (even before 3-11), contrarily to many other countries. This sushi (and sashimi) death threat applies to anyone, anywhere, from New York city to London.
Of course, we are not talking about sudden death here, just leukemia, cancers, early heart attacks, etc. Oceans are getting so polluted by radiation alone (Cf. also the Atlantic Ocean thanks to Sellafield MOX plants spills in the UK, Russian nuclear tests in Baltic Sea, French and American nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean, etc.) that fish, seafood, seaweed, etc. consumption has become hazardous – but especially fish imported from Japan like tuna – so you may reconsider your tuna steak or carpaccio order and try some salmon from Norway.
As an expat, you may be tempted by exotic delicacies such as dolphin or whale meat: these bear the highest mercury and PCB levels. Dolphins especially are caught along the Pacific coast of Japan such in Taiji village, who received international media attention following the controversial movie “The Cove“. They migrate in waters where I roughly computed 1 exa-Becquerels (1 billion times 1 billion) might have already been dumped so far (Cf. Exa-Becquerel Now In Pacific Ocean ? on SurvivalJapan).
The following article from Asahi Shimbun gives credentials to some claims made earlier on in SurvivalJapan about mislabelling of fish catch in Japan and the hocus-pocus of fishing industry and their unethical practices :
Agency asks prefectures to specify where fish are caught
By KEIICHIRO INOUE / Staff Writer
October 07, 2011
Amid consumer concerns about seafood contaminated with radiation, the Fisheries Agency is asking seven eastern prefectures and maritime organizations to be more specific about where their fish are caught.
Under the current system, fishermen can simply write down the ports where they have taken their fish and other marine products as the locations for their catches. For example, if fish caught off Hokkaido end up at Kesennuma Port in Miyagi Prefecture, the fishermen can say the fish were caught off Miyagi Prefecture.
The agency on Oct. 5 sent a notice for stricter standards to the prefectural governments of Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki and Chiba as well as fishing organizations, including cooperative associations.
It said the requirement was necessary because consumers’ interest in sea areas has grown because of the radioactive substances leaking from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
However, the notice is not legally binding.
“We will ask each prefecture for cooperation,” an agency official said.
According to the notice, fish and other marine creatures caught near the coast should feature labels mentioning the closest prefecture.
Other rules apply for fish that swim further out in areas that can cover two or more prefectures, such as bonito and saury.
If such fish are caught off Fukushima Prefecture, they should be labeled as: “Off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture.”
Fish caught in the Pacific Ocean off Hokkaido or Aomori Prefecture should also be labeled as such.
For fish taken from waters off Iwate Prefecture, fishermen are required to write, “Off the coast of the northern part of Sanriku.” They should write, “Off the coast of the southern part of Sanriku” for catches off Miyagi Prefecture.
Fish caught off Ibaraki Prefecture should be described as, “Off the coast of Hitachi or Kashima,” while Chiba Prefecture fish should be labeled: “Off the coast of Boso (peninsula).”
Catches in areas east of the 200 nautical mile line from the eastern Japanese coast should be described as: “Northern part (of sea areas) in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan.”
Deadly Japanese Seafood and Fish
Read about Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo on Wikipedia and how the words “radiation” and “nuclear” never appear there.
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