US Sushi Boom and the Import Demand for Japanese Fish

Suggested Bibliographic Reference: Challenging New Frontiers in the Global Seafood Sector: Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 11-15, 2016. Compiled by Stefani J. Evers and Ann L. Shriver. International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis, 2016.Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.Japanese foods such as sushi and sashimi are in boom in US markets, and the US import of the Japanese fish is expected to increase. However, the growth rate has not been so rapid as the import of agricultural products such as green tea and soybean paste. At the same time, the imports of fish items have fluctuated drastically. If the Japanese foods boom directly leads to an increase in the demand for the Japanese fish materials, the number of the Japanese restaurants and the US imports of fish from Japan should have positive correlation. Conversely, if the end users of the Japanese foods do not mind the origin countries of the materials, US import demand function from Japan should have high price elasticity. We selected three fish items namely bluefin tuna, scallop and yellowtail (buri), for which Japan has supply potentials based on farming technology. As a result of the analysis, we found that the imports of the Japanese fish items had not traced the increase in the number of the Japanese restaurants well, and that US import demand functions from Japan presented high price elasticity. These results imply that the Japanese fish are not essential for the Japanese food materials. The high price elasticity of the fish demands suggests that the imports from Japan will increase if the Japanese shippers cut the price, but the detail study is needed to clarify whether such price cut might deteriorate the profitability of the farming business