Japanese companies develop new products using shark meat and skin
A portable record player and a fried snack draw attention to sharks, whose meat is widely used in Japanese fish cakes without many consumers realising it.
- Audio-Technica has released a portable record player featuring a handle made from blue shark skin to raise awareness of the shark-fishing industry.
- The Oyatsu Company is selling a deep-fried, karaage-style snack made from salmon shark meat to familiarize consumers with its taste.
- A Tokyo wholesaler, Chuka Takahashi Inc., is marketing shark meat products under the name "Peach Shark" and plans to release prepared foods for consumers.
A record player with a handle incorporating shark skin and a deep-fried shark snack are giving Japanese consumers new ways to encounter a fish they may already have eaten without knowing it.
Companies are making the origin of these products clear, while much of the shark meat used in everyday food remains unrecognised.
Tokyo-based audio equipment maker Audio-Technica Corp. released its portable SHARK BURGER record player this year.
Its handle uses blue shark skin.
“The product was designed not simply to deliver music,” an official said, “but to give consumers an opportunity to learn about the shark-fishing industry.”
The company said the player sold out during the summer, without disclosing how many it had made.
The Oyatsu Company, Ltd., based in Tsu in central Japan’s Mie Prefecture, is bringing shark meat into the snack aisle.
Made with salmon sharks landed at Kesennuma port, its snack is deep-fried in a savoury, spicy Japanese karaage style and sold at supermarkets and other retailers.
“We hope to make the taste of shark meat better known through a new way of eating it,” an official said.
Another approach comes from Chuka Takahashi Inc., a Tokyo wholesaler of Chinese food ingredients.
It calls its shark meat products Peach Shark after the meat’s pink colour.
The company sells blocks for cooking and stick-shaped pieces for commercial use, and plans to release prepared foods.
Much of the shark meat already consumed in Japan is ground into surimi paste for products including hanpen, a steamed fish cake.
Other familiar uses for the meat are scarce.
Fins, meanwhile, are prized in Chinese dishes such as shark fin soup.
A seafood processor in Kesennuma said, “Few people realise that they have eaten shark meat”.
Sharks have been landed in Japan since the Edo period (1603–1868). Blue sharks and other species still come ashore at Kesennuma in the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi.
Efforts to raise the meat’s profile face a complicated backdrop.
Shark fishing, like whaling, has attracted criticism from environmental groups overseas.
Sharks have also gained popularity in parts of pop culture through the children’s Baby Shark animation videos on YouTube, creating another obstacle for the businesses promoting shark meat.
