The soaring price of octopus puts takoyaki shops in trouble． With octopus priced as high as tuna in supermarkets， it has gone from being a “devil’s fish” to a popular food ingredient， and Japan is losing out in purchasing it．
11/15 (Fri) 14:07 fnn Prime Online Takoyaki is a specialty of Osaka. Although it is loved by many as a “taste of the common people,” it is actually becoming harder to eat casually these days. What is behind this? Takoyaki is one of Osaka’s representative gourmet foods, with a soft texture and chewy octopus. Customer from Tokyo: It’s delicious. I eat it as a souvenir of my trip. Customer from Korea: It’s delicious! It’s delicious! Octopus is very popular with people from overseas! ■The octopus war has begun… According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ household survey, Kansai ranks 1st to 5th in annual spending on octopus. I’m sure there are many people who love octopus, but the truth is that octopus is no longer something that people can casually eat. Shigemi Yamaguchi, CEO of Itakoyaki Umeda Main Store: It’s going up tremendously. It’s gone up a lot. I don’t want to give it to a child because it’s too expensive for them with their pocket money. I want to keep it as low as possible. The octopus war is starting to slowly begin. Octopus war!? What on earth is happening to the octopuses? ■ Octopus is more expensive than tuna at supermarkets If you take a look at a supermarket in Osaka city, you’ll find that octopus from Mauritania in western Africa costs 298 yen per 100 grams. This is the same price as 100 grams of tuna from Taiwan. Shopper: Octopus is expensive and I haven’t had it recently. At home I used to rub the cucumbers, add vinegar and then octopus, but I can’t do that now, and I can’t make takoyaki either. Furthermore, when it comes to domestic octopus…bluefin tuna from Ine Town, Kyoto Prefecture costs 498 yen per 100 grams, while octopus from Awaji Island costs 598 yen per 100 grams, making octopus actually more expensive than tuna. Kagiya Fish Advisor Takenori Ohata: Octopus, which was cheap until now, is becoming increasingly expensive, and there is a possibility that it will become a luxury food ingredient, similar to abalone. ■Akashiyaki shop: “Purchase prices are about twice what they were 10 years ago” Akashi Yumekoubou Nishiakashi store: Sorry to keep you waiting, here’s Akashiyaki. Akashiyaki is a fluffy egg batter stuffed with octopus and served dipped in soup stock. This local gourmet dish, which represents Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture, is now facing a crisis. Akashi Yume Kobo Nishiakashi Branch Manager Nakamura Satoru: (1 kilo) What used to cost just over 2,000 yen is now around 4,000 yen. Compared to when the store opened about 10 years ago, the purchase price of Akashi octopus has roughly doubled. However, they are trying not to raise prices as much as possible and are keeping costs down on areas other than the octopus. Akashi Yume Kobo Nishiakashi Branch Manager Nakamura Satoru: When you’re asked, “Would you rather eat 1,000 yen takoyaki or Akashiyaki?” I think there would inevitably be some resistance. I’m trying to make little efforts at a time, such as looking for cheap oil. Why are octopus prices soaring? When I covered octopus fishing, the reason became clear. (Source below.
Poor Japan, where people can no longer even afford to eat takoyaki lol. This is news that symbolizes Japan, which is only getting poorer under the hellish LDP-Komeito government.
They’ve stupidly spread the word that it’s edible, they should have just left it as it is only eaten locally in places like Japan and the Mediterranean region.
Rather than being pleased that Japanese food always ranks highly in world food rankings, Japanese people would probably be happier if people thought it was disgusting.
>>25 It can’t be helped, Japan is poor. It might become like an extremely poor country where the people who grow cacao have never even tasted cacao or chocolate.
“Octopuses appear to have intelligence, so we should regulate octopus farming! Of course, cows, pigs and chicken are livestock, that’s God’s decision.” This revealed the true nature of Americans.
If you want it to taste like Akashiyaki, you should add octopus, but if it’s a snack for children, wieners and konjac are fine, an old Kansai wisdom. In fact, the wieners can even be made from fish meat.
Young people today probably don’t know this, but about 40 years ago at Fanroad, Mr. K from Initial Biscuit was tricked into buying some octopus-less takoyaki, and he got so angry that he complained about it for months.
They developed Indonesian octopus, which was not in demand due to the rising prices of octopus from Mauritania and Morocco. If you show an octopus in an aquarium how to open a bottle, it will open it without hesitation. It’s so intelligent, it’s like a cat or a dog, and it’s so cute.
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