A kaisendon bowl being sold in Hokkaido. Not directly related to the article. Provided by a reader.
Catches of Hokkaido’s main seafood products — including sea urchin, salmon and scallops — have fallen sharply over the past five years, driving up prices across the board. The shift is even changing the ingredients used in the seafood rice bowls served at Sapporo’s Nijo Market.
Prices Surge as Catches Fall
Kaisendon, the Japanese seafood rice bowl served at the tourist-heavy Nijo Market in Sapporo, has recently begun featuring ingredients rarely used before, such as tuna, yellowtail and horse mackerel, according to a report by Nikkei Asia on the 25th.
One restaurant owner said tuna is now practically the only ingredient that is stable in both price and supply, adding that the ingredients they had long used are becoming harder to find.
The change in kaisendon ingredients is attributed to declining catches of Hokkaido’s main seafood products. Between 2020 and 2025, catches of scallops and sea urchin each fell by about 20%. Shrimp catches dropped by about 40%, and salmon by about 70%.
As supply shrank, prices climbed sharply. Data released by Hokkaido last month showed that prices of sea urchin, hair crab, salmon roe and scallops have all risen since 2020. Last year, scallops sold for an average of 395 yen per kilogram, more than triple the 2020 level. Prices of shrimp and salmon also more than doubled, while sea urchin rose about 90% and hair crab and squid climbed about 40%.
The supply crunch is expected to worsen this year. One Hokkaido research institute projected that this autumn’s salmon catch would be only half the level of last year, which was itself weak. Scallop output is also expected to decline further.
Although catches have fallen, the total value of the haul actually rose, buoyed by higher prices. Last year, Hokkaido’s catch totaled 913,000 tons, down 15% from a year earlier, but its value climbed 13% to 323 billion yen — the highest in about 30 years. Growing overseas demand for Japanese seafood was also cited as a factor pushing prices up.
Processors Left to Absorb the Costs
The rise in catch value has not translated into better earnings for the processing industry, however. Processors, unable to fully pass on higher raw-material costs in their product prices, are absorbing the burden themselves.
Scallops must be shelled and salmon filleted, while salmon roe must be cured in soy sauce or salt before it can be supplied to restaurants and homes nationwide. Because seafood requires an essential processing stage before it reaches consumers’ tables, processors play a major role — yet raw-material shortages and rising procurement costs are squeezing their operations.
Even in Hokkaido, Japan’s largest seafood processing hub, the number of processing facilities has been declining in recent years, as companies unable to withstand raw-material shortages and soaring procurement costs shut down. Seafood processing requires specialized skills and substantial investment, so even when existing operators disappear, new ones do not easily take their place, observers say.
Tsuyoshi Sasaya, head of Marusa Sasaya Shoten, a seafood processing company in Kushiro, Hokkaido, voiced concern that the structure is one in which processors bear the rise in seafood prices, warning that if the industry keeps weakening, companies will no longer be able to attempt anything new, such as capital investment.
AloJapan.com