JAPAN: Traditional blowfish chefs swell with anger over proposed changes to Tokyo's strict regulations that would allow unlicensed chefs to serve the potentially deadly delicacy

Record ID: 466187

  • Title: JAPAN: Traditional blowfish chefs swell with anger over proposed changes to Tokyo's strict regulations that would allow unlicensed chefs to serve the potentially deadly delicacy
  • Date: 2nd April 2012
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (APRIL 2, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF JAPANESE "FUGU" BLOWFISH RESTAURANT 'MUKOUJIMA HASHIMOTO' PAINTED SIGN OF FUGU ON RESTAURANT FUGU CHEF NAOHITO HASHIMOTO SCOOPING A FUGU FROM TANK FUGU IN TANK HASHIMOTO DROPPING FUGU FROM TANK INTO BOWL FUGU IN BOWL BEING HANDLED BY HASHIMOTO HASHIMOTO SLICING FINS OFF FUGU VARIOUS OF HASHIMOTO PREPARING FUGU HASHIMOTO DIVIDING FUGU INTO POISONOUS AND NON-POISONOUS PARTS EYES OF THE FUGU (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) FUGU CHEF NAOHITO HASHIMOTO, SAYING: "We have spent time and money in order to obtain and use the blowfish license, but with these new rules anyone can handle blowfish even without a licence. They're saying it's ok now to serve blowfish. All of us who are licensed chefs think this way of thinking is a bit strange, that's our opinion anyway." EXTERIOR OF TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING CHERRY BLOSSOMS IN FRONT OF TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT FOOD CONTROL DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL, HIRONOBU KONDO, SAYING: "Outside of Tokyo, the regulations for blowfish are even more relaxed and yet there are hardly any blowfish poison-related accidents." KONDO WRITING ON WHITE-BOARD POSTER WITH ILLUSTRATION OF BLOWFISH BEING CAUGHT BY A FISHERMAN (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT FOOD CONTROL DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL, HIRONOBU KONDO, SAYING: "There is hope that the number of restaurants with unlicensed chefs serving blowfish will increase, and that blowfish as an ingredient will be used not only for traditional Japanese foods but also others such as Chinese and Western foods." RICKSHAW DRIVER RUNNING PAST A SUSHI RESTAURANT SIGN IN SHAPE OF TUNA FISH ABOVE ENTRANCE TO SUSHI RESTAURANT MORE OF SUSHI RESTAURANT (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) TOKYO RESIDENT MAYUMI HOSOKAWA, SAYING: "I wouldn't really check to see if there's a license. But when I go to a specialist restaurant I just kind of feel they have one." VARIOUS OF CUSTOMERS OUTSIDE SUSHI RESTAURANT (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) SCREEN-WRITER SHOJI IMAI SAYING: "Cooking blowfish is an art form that requires technique and skills. There are some types of cuisine that depend on expertise. That's why we pay good money for blowfish." VARIOUS OF FUGU INSIDE TANK VARIOUS OF HASHIMOTO WASHING POISON OFF PARTS OF FUGU (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) FUGU CHEF NAOHITO HASHIMOTO, SAYING: "I don't want people to forget that you can actually die from eating blowfish. I feel that the government's awareness of this fact has weakened." VARIOUS OF HASHIMOTO PREPARING FUGU SASHIMI MORE OF HASHIMOTO PREPARING FUGU SASHIMI FUGU SASHIMI SERVED IN SHAPE OF CHRYSANTHEMUM FLOWER
  • Embargoed: 17th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Business,Health,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACMKBXRLR3NV681TELI3C2VOJE
  • Story Text: It only takes an effortless scoop with a fish net for chef Naohito Hashimoto to select a helpless blowfish for the menu of the day.
    But this is just the beginning of a dangerous process to divide edible parts of the fish -- from organs filled with a poison more deadly than cyanide.
    Since 1949, dicing with blowfish in Tokyo has been the preserve of a small band of strictly regulated chefs like Hashimoto.
    But now, new food control laws which come into effect in October are about to change that by opening the trade to restaurants without a licence.
    "We have spent time and money in order to obtain and use the blowfish license, but with these new rules anyone can handle blowfish even without a licence," said Hashimoto, a blowfish chef for some thirty years.
    "They're saying it's ok now to serve blowfish. All of us who are licensed chefs think this way of thinking is a bit strange, that's our opinion anyway."
    But the Tokyo Metropolitan Government says new legislation relaxing the rules on licensing reflects changing times.
    Tokyo's laws are far stricter than many places outside the capital, and recent years have seen a decline in accidents.
    "Outside of Tokyo, the regulations for blowfish are even more relaxed and yet there are hardly any blowfish poison-related accidents," Hironobu Kondo, an official at the city's Food Control Department, said.
    "There is hope that the number of restaurants with unlicensed chefs serving blowfish will increase, and that blowfish as an ingredient will be used not only for traditional Japanese foods but also others such as Chinese and Western foods."
    As it stands, a traditional Japanese blowfish meal is far from the cheapest dining option.
    At Hashimoto's restaurant a fixed price meal costs up to 10000 yen (120 dollars) per person.
    Now Tokyo bureaucrats hope relaxing the rules will open up the market and bring prices down.
    But for some customers outside a sushi restaurant, one of the locations where blowfish could end up being served, looser legislation is no substitute for the experience of traditional blowfish chefs.
    "I wouldn't really check to see if there's a license. But when I go to a specialist restaurant I just kind of feel they have one," Tokyo resident Mayumi Hosokawa said.
    "Cooking blowfish is an art form that requires technique and skills. There are some types of cuisine that depend on expertise. That's why we pay good money for blowfish," said screen-writer Shoji Imai.
    Apprentice blowfish chefs must train with a veteran for a minimum of two years before they can take rigorous written and practical exams.
    A poison known as tetrodotoxin is found in parts of the blowfish such as its liver, heart, intestines and eyes.
    Years of training means it takes Hashimoto just two minutes to gut a single fish.
    "I don't want people to forget that you can actually die from eating blowfish. I feel that the government's awareness of this fact has weakened," Hashimoto said.
    And with the raw fish forming petals of a delicate and fragile chrysanthemum, that may be a hard fact for Hashimoto's customers to forget.
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