It is astonishing that the betrayal of consumers by disguising production areas was conducted on such a large scale. There is a need to get to the bottom of the situation surrounding this wrongdoing and take effective measures against it.
It turned out that most of the asari clams that were being distributed in Japan as "Kumamoto-grown" were clams of foreign origin that were purchased from China and South Korea.
According to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, about 80% of the clams sold between October and December last year were labeled as "Kumamoto-grown." But the total amount thus sold is more than 100 times the annual catch of clams in Kumamoto Prefecture.
