Eco-Labeled Seafood in Japanese Market: Wtp Analysis Using Choice Experiment

Seafood ecolabel, such as Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label continues to expand worldwide,\ud particularly in European and US markets. Consumers’ response to ecolabeled seafood products in these\ud markets has been studied in the past, mostly with encouraging results. Meanwhile, and after a decade\ud since the establishment of MSC, seafood ecolabel has not penetrated the Japanese market, where per\ud capita seafood consumption is by far the largest in the world. Focus group sessions suggested that typical\ud Japanese consumers are simply not fully aware of the state of world fish stocks. This raised several\ud interrelated questions: will Japanese consumers demand sustainably fished products, as indicated by the\ud label, after being informed of the situation? Will there be a price premium for ecolabeled products? Will\ud the content of information matter? To answer these questions, we implemented a web-based national\ud survey and discrete choice experiment on primary shoppers. Provided that (a) the consumers are made\ud aware of the fisheries’ conditions and its relations to the ecolabel and (b) the label can be trusted, our\ud results suggest that there is a significant demand for eco-labeled seafood in Japan. We also analyzed how\ud other important attributes (e.g., wild/famed, domestic/import) interact with the effect of ecolabel