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Not long after the March 11 earthquake in Japan, I heard about sushi panic. But not in Japan.
It seemed that restaurant goers in places like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles were rushing out to eat loads of raw fish before it was too late. Many of those sushi lovers speculated that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant would contaminate the sea, the fish and then people.
That’s not an impossible scenario. But it’s highly unlikely.
Still, since March 11, the sushi industry in Japan has been in disarray. But why, when that scenario is unlikely?
If you want to know anything about sushi, Yoshitaka Narita is your guy. He’s the man widely credited with streamlining Japan’s sushi industry, bringing hygiene, pricing and marketing standards to the business.
The 54 year-old entrepreneur runs Tsukiji Sushi-ko. It’s named after Tokyo’s world famous Tsukiji fish market where he sources the majority of his produce.
“It’s the kitchen of Japan,” Narita told me.
Tsukiji is Japan’s biggest fish market, which also means it’s the world’s biggest. In the same way Japanese buyers show up on remote docks in Maine to score highly desirable North Atlantic bluefin tuna, buyers from around the globe in search for coveted Japanese horse mackerel also shop at Tsukiji.
Horse mackerel sold in Tsukiji in the morning could be on a plate in a New York sushi bar by night.
So first stop, Tsukiji. The morning I went, it was raining, but still busy. One fishmonger I met was hoarse from barking out to customers. I could barely get him to pause to make a few comments about the business, he was so busy.
It seemed odd that he was trying so hard because he seemed to have cornered his corner of the market with sushi-quality tuna. Samples of it were laid out in a glass case that looked more like a museum display than a refrigerator.
Still, his nerves about sales were understandable. When I asked him how concerned customers were about where their fish comes from now, he said, “a lot.”
He explained that right after March 11, his own sales were down by about 50 percent. “Now it’s only down about 30 percent,” he said, and jumped right on another prospective buyer before ignoring me.
The good news is that elsewhere in the Tsukiji market, business also seemed to be picking up.
I met Yoshiyaki Saito, 60 years-old. He’s been in the business for 40 years, and runs the Saito Fish Co. He told me that after March 11, business was down sharply. But he said that was because of logistical problems: no gas, and roads were shut down.
But over time, he said, business came back. “My customers have faith,” he said, “that the Japanese government is inspecting all the fish sold in the market to make sure it’s not contaminated.”
Maybe it’s faith in the government. Maybe it’s belief in science.
“The ocean is so huge in terms of the amount of water in the ocean,” says David Brenner, director of Columbia University’s Center for Radiological Research in New York, “that any radioactivity in the ocean gets enormously diluted just by the amount of water in the ocean. And so the amount that would reach one through fish is actually very small indeed. It’s more an issue for the local rivers and streams near the Fukushima plant.”
That radioactive water could contaminate freshwater fish. More significantly, it could also — and has — contaminated crops.
“Things like broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, mushrooms,” says Brenner, “they’re actually the majority of the foods in Japan that are still slightly radioactive, and again only the ones that are being grown in the northeast of Japan near Fukushima.”
Still, the idea that fish from the sea might catch radiation like a cold — and pass it on to humans through sushi – is a powerful scenario that’s hard to ignore. And as a result, the sushi business continues to suffer.
Narita, the man who stays across the sushi industry possibly more than anyone in Japan, says that will take a long time for the sushi business to return to normal.
“And it’s not just because fish stocks have gone down,” he says. “The export side of the business has almost been paralyzed.” And Yoshitaka says “people’s confusion about radiation isn’t changing.”
It’s easy to understand why radiation continues to scare people. After all, the number of cancer deaths attributed to the Chernobyl disaster range from zero to tens of thousands. And it’s precisely the uncertainty of radiation’s effects on humans that’s most worrying for David Brenner of Columbia University.
“It’s not people getting a high dose of radiation from eating a piece of highly contaminated fish,” says Brenner. “It’s large amounts of people getting small amounts of radiation from eating foods that are way below the regulatory levels in terms of contamination over a generation or two, that’s really the long term issue that we face from Fukushima.”
The reality of the situation says Brenner is that we don’t really know what the long-term health consequences of that are going to be.
The immediate consequences for the Japanese fish diet, sushi especially, are also hard to analyze. Sushi is already in the crosshairs. Consumers of tuna are warned about mercury levels. And in this age of eating locally, raw and often exotic fish from far-flung parts of the world isn’t the most sustainable food choice.
So, sushi experts like Narita are concerned about the future of brand sushi.
Still, if you’re in Japan, go to the Tsukiji fish market. Just once, see what it’s like to taste barbecued eel in teriyaki sauce as close to the source as you’re likely to get.
You could eat the smell from the smoke alone. But once that first unagi kebab is in your mouth, the smoothness of the flesh and the slippery quality of the eel, well, it’s nothing like any eel that American sushi places typically offer.
One bite of eel from Tsukiji, and you can taste how much is at stake.
© Public Radio International
32 Comments
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jforce
A lot of "ho-ing" and "humming" in this article. No facts and a strong desire for people to start eating sushi again. It sounds to me like their blaming the consumer for not knowing enough about radiation. We have to respect the consumer and what the market is saying. Pushing biased experts on us with no real stance on whether the fish is safe is hardly a reason to start wolfing down sushi.
We don't know the effects, at all, yet. But, head down to Tsukji and have an Unagi-kebab.
nath
Personally, I think you can get very sick from eating sushi in America, and it is much more expensive and should not be.
Asagao
For all those who don't have the magical believe that radiation can't harm them,or care about their children, the problem is with labeling. In Japan, fish must have it's origin labelled. BUT, I believe, any kind of processed fish(including sushi) doesn't have to have information where it is from. I went to buy deep fried iwashi, and it took 2 staff and a phone call to inform me it was from...Fukushima!
paulinusa
"Horse mackerel sold in Tsukiji in the morning could be on a plate in a New York sushi bar by night."
From what I understand only the most exclusive sushi restaurants in NY order from Japan and even then the Japanese imports are limited. To say that the average restaurant in the US (or maybe anywhere outside of Japan) gets the majority of their sushi from Tsukiji is an overstatement.
Sioux Chef
Indeed. The 'corporate shill gambit' is a good indicator that the person using it has a weak argument.
nath
@Mountain: That page has a huge amount of data and shows that the Japanese are really doing a good job. Interesting.
chewitup
I have had sushi once since 3/11 and I used to have it like once every two weeks.
I don't know where it comes from and I don't want to "win" the radioactive isotope lottery.
nath
Take your Geiger counter to the 回転寿司屋
cactusJack
"catch radiation like a cold"...who wrote this slop?
Riffraff
If you look at the overall pattern of how the government and private industry is handling the radiation contamination of food, you have to be leery of everything said by both. The operating procedure so far by both government and industry has to been to ignore the possibility and probability of contamination until someone gets around to checking and waves the BS flag. Then the government slowly says…… weeellll…. maybe, we need to do more testing, and then comes the OMG, the levels are off the chart, and we need to ban this item. Through all this is deafening silence from the industry side. When is rice harvest?
melguy
@osakadaz: 10 million becquerels (= .00001 terabecquerel) an hour is a trickle compared to previous releases. The total release, according to NISR about a month ago, is about a million million million becquerels in round figures.
The contaminated water at the plant contains about the same amount (720,000 terabecquerels) of radioactivity as was released. You'd better hope that that's not busy leaking into the groundwater.
mountainpear
@Farmboy I haven't eaten any fish since March 11 myself but here are some results of fish tested for anyone interested. http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/e/inspection/index.html
fabricij
Utrack, We shouldn't be surprised.... I am not a negative person but, I am more worried whats happening now vs what was happening 3 months ago. My experience, when ever big issues go " Underground" there is cause for worry and concern. Unlike the US, UK etc, no one is protesting demanding to know the detail. Instead a passive wait till they tell us approach. Will we ever get the detail ? No, not until people power kicks in....
Utrack
Geiger counters might not work, farmboy recently posted Lab/Medical equipment would do a better job at detecting contamination or something to that effect. so I went looking and found this website.
International Medcom [ High-Quality Radiation Detection Instruments ], Has Handheld Surface Contamination Meter $675 USD and the External Probe Surface Contamination Monitor $875USD
Checkout the specs. http://www.medcom.com/exp.htm
chewitup
Radiation does not accumulate anymore than light does. What accumulates is RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES and heavy metals. Its not the same thing. Not remotely. This site needs a large banner explaining this. We are exposed to radiation everyday naturally. But the radioactive isotopes we are talking about do not exist naturally. They float around and get in your body via dust and food, etc.
TrentonGaijin
Yep, sure could go for a dozen or so plates of Sushi-Maru sushi (with a crab miso soup & large draft beer)....
MoriNoHogosha
Though I'm now back in Canada (where I live less than a 15minute drive from a nuclear power plant) I still wouldn't hesitate to eat any saltwater fish caught north or south of Fukushima. True, labelling is problematic, but I suppose the farther away the fish's origin from that area, the better the chances of it being untainted.
Either way, as has been said, it's the freshwater fish and any kind of shellfish from the northeast that one should be wary of.
And yes, there is definitely more Tsukiji-pandering in this article than there are actual facts about the radiation levels found in fish from Fukushima and surrounding areas.
YuriOtani
I think having my fish with a hint of Strontium-90 makes it taste so much better. Having a half life of 28.9 years ensures it will be around for many generations of Japanese to come.
Utrack
I'm confused now, isn't Daiichi NPP working on 100,000+ tons of radioactive contaminated water and some has gone into the ocean and alot of the radioactive hydrogen gas plumes from the explosions went there as well and probably still is going into the ocean because all the Daiichi reactors are not stable. I can understand the concern over seafood the fish eat the plankton which maybe radioactive there maybe hotspots on the seabed where seaweed grows. Just like there are hotspots on land, there are a lot of worries.
Utrack
@ fabricij
I hear you, it does seem like this issue has gone underground.
Foxie
A lot of your fish on your sushi isn't even from Japan, so keep on eating without worries.
ratamaque
Jforce said: No facts and a strong desire for people to start eating sushi again.
I agree. Suspicious... I have seen a few overly pro-Japan, pro-sushi / beef, biased articles (alledgedly) written by foreigners recently. eg: http://www.nypost.com/p/lifestyle/travel/reasons_why_tokyo_is_the_best_v7p9ZoJqhiTXWxZIrhs9PK
I wonder if someone`s paying them to write them.
Smorkian
Or... people have a different perspective than some of the posters here? Some here like to call other posters government/TEPCO shills because they disagree.
Disillusioned
It is not a 'scare'! It is real! There are no regulations or testing being done on seafood. No one knows where they come from or what the levels of contaminants are.
papigiulio
not scared, I still eat sushi. otherwise we have to be scared for everything: rice, meat, fish, all fresh products. I just hope for the best.
Smorkian
Yes, but pushing biased anti-nuclear 'experts' on us with their own agenda is hardly reason to stop.
Is fish from Fukushima contaminated? I'm sure. What's the likelihood your fish comes from Fukushima? Pretty unlikely - it's a big ocean, and so much fish (especially cheaper fish) is imported into Japan. I personally don't feel much risk in eating sushi right now, but of course everyone is different.
Lenin
People are fearful creatures especially in these soft times, it appears. Most notably in the nanny state social democratic world. Afraid of everything and needing big brother to care for them. We need more samurais and less wimps in this world so eat your sushi and stop worrying, unless you are eating fugu? In any event attention spans are short and history is forgotten so party on, world!