Start Date
27-5-2026 12:00 PM
End Date
27-5-2026 12:15 PM
Description
Japan is a country with hundreds of food products and traditions tied to regional pride and identity. However, rising temperatures and extreme weather patterns attributed to climate change have caused unstable, decreasing, and lower-quality yields of many foods in regions where these have traditionally thrived or been sourced, thereby threatening the continuity and very existence of regional heritage foods and related traditions and, thus, identity. This paper employs the case of fugu (pufferfish), the highly poisonous seafood delicacy from Shimonoseki (Yamaguchi Prefecture), to illustrate the ways climate change is upending food heritage in Japan. Until 30 years ago, the seas around Shimonoseki have annually yielded 2,000 tons of the most-prized variety, torafugu (Japanese pufferfish), an abundance that gave birth to a thriving industry and an artisanal food culture around fugu that is historically identified with Shimonoseki. Rising sea temperatures, however, have caused the annual catch to fall to 100 tons in recent years, and fugu habitats have moved northwards to areas where fugu fishing and processing centres as well as licensed artisan-chefs were non-existent. Consequently, Shimonoseki has been enjoined in bringing in fugu from other areas and training their artisan-chefs and supporting the establishment of new centres and food establishments in these regions. As Shimonoseki’s distinctive food heritage is diminishing, even disappearing, it is creating new food heritages and identities elsewhere.
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Included in
Climate Change and the Upending of Food Heritage: Fugu in Japan
Japan is a country with hundreds of food products and traditions tied to regional pride and identity. However, rising temperatures and extreme weather patterns attributed to climate change have caused unstable, decreasing, and lower-quality yields of many foods in regions where these have traditionally thrived or been sourced, thereby threatening the continuity and very existence of regional heritage foods and related traditions and, thus, identity. This paper employs the case of fugu (pufferfish), the highly poisonous seafood delicacy from Shimonoseki (Yamaguchi Prefecture), to illustrate the ways climate change is upending food heritage in Japan. Until 30 years ago, the seas around Shimonoseki have annually yielded 2,000 tons of the most-prized variety, torafugu (Japanese pufferfish), an abundance that gave birth to a thriving industry and an artisanal food culture around fugu that is historically identified with Shimonoseki. Rising sea temperatures, however, have caused the annual catch to fall to 100 tons in recent years, and fugu habitats have moved northwards to areas where fugu fishing and processing centres as well as licensed artisan-chefs were non-existent. Consequently, Shimonoseki has been enjoined in bringing in fugu from other areas and training their artisan-chefs and supporting the establishment of new centres and food establishments in these regions. As Shimonoseki’s distinctive food heritage is diminishing, even disappearing, it is creating new food heritages and identities elsewhere.