Photo/Illutration “Asari” clams about to be cooked (The Asahi Shimbun)

The figure for the clam harvest in Kumamoto Prefecture, which is renowned for producing some of the nation’s plumpest and tastiest “asari,” simply didn’t add up, prompting an investigation by the central government into false labeling.

As a result, Kumamoto Governor Ikuo Kabashima announced at a Feb. 1 news conference that shipments of local “tennen-iki asari” clams harvested in local waters will be suspended for about two months, effective Feb. 8.

There are suspicions that clams from South Korean and Chinese waters were being passed off as locally caught.

“There will be no future for the Kumamoto brand unless we root out the falsification issue immediately,” the governor said. “We as a prefecture must fight as one to get to the bottom of this.”

The Kumamoto federation of fisheries cooperative associations will cooperate in the effort with the prefectural government, Kabashima said.

During the period of suspension, prefectural authorities will ask retailers to check the origin of clams sold as “produced in Kumamoto.”

The prefectural government’s response was triggered by a Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries survey released Feb. 1 on sales of fresh clams at supermarkets nationwide.

The ministry said the volume of clams on offer as “produced in Kumamoto” far exceeded the annual haul in Kumamoto Prefecture. It said it will conduct on-site inspections of traders for possible violations of food labelling laws.

The ministry investigated suspicions of false labeling of fresh clams by targeting around 1,000 supermarkets that operate in multiple prefectures, including Tokyo, from October to December last year.

Based on the findings, it estimated the total amount of clams on sale at 17,000 or so supermarkets nationwide.

By its reckoning, of 3,138 tons of clams sold during the period, 3,111 tons, or 99.1 percent, were sold as “domestically produced,” and 2,485 tons, or 79.2 percent, were labeled as “produced in Kumamoto Prefecture.”

But the annual tonnage of clams in 2020 harvested in Japan as a whole came to 4,400 tons, of which clams produced in Kumamoto Prefecture came to a mere 21 tons.

About 35,000 tons of clams were imported from China and South Korea that year.

The ministry voiced strong suspicions that clams of foreign origin were falsely labeled as “produced in Kumamoto Prefecture” and sold in supermarkets.

The ministry also purchased 31 packages of clams labeled as produced in Kumamoto Prefecture and conducted DNA testing on the contents.

It found that all but one of the packages contained clams that almost certainly originated in China or South Korea, officials said.

The ministry now suspects that most clams labeled as “produced in Kumamoto Prefecture” actually come from China or South Korea.

It will also investigate distribution routes through on-site inspections of wholesalers to determine if laws were broken.

The ministry notified organizations in the supply chain such as supermarket and fishery wholesale companies to thoroughly check the origin of their purchases.

There have been instances in the past of clams not raised in local waters being passed off as the Kumamoto brand.

In December 2021, a fishery products seller in Kumamoto Prefecture was punished for falsely labeling clams produced in China or Fukuoka Prefecture as having come from Kumamoto Prefecture and selling them.

“We received orders for Kumamoto clams from sale destinations. Clams produced in China did not sell, so we falsified the labels,” a company official told the authorities.

The ministry believes the underlying reason for the scams is due to Kumamoto Prefecture’s reputation for tasty clams. 

“We want consumers to know where the clams they purchase come from,” said a ministry official. “We will urge sellers and distributors to check the source of origin properly in the hope the industry as a whole improves labeling.”

(This article was compiled from reports by Yoshihito Kawami, Hideki Ito and Rieko Oki.)

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