Photo/Illutration The Yaizu fishermen’s cooperative in Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture (Takuya Yamazaki)

SHIZUOKA--Theft of bonito have been a common practice among some workers at a fish market in Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, for decades, according to testimony at a district court here on July 6.

Minoru Yoshida, 40, a former worker with the fishermen’s cooperative, admitted that stealing fish was a longstanding practice at the organization.

“Thefts have been going on since I joined the cooperative 22 years ago,” he said.

Yoshida was one of five defendants questioned in court on July 6.

Prosecutors indicted the five in November 2021 for conspiring to steal 4.4 tons of frozen bonito, worth 1.04 million yen ($7,700), from Kyokuyo Suisan Co., a Yaizu-based fisheries company, at the Yaizu cooperative’s fish market in the city on Feb. 8, 2021.

Yaizu boasts Japan’s top haul of bonito, and the game fish is the pride and joy of the port city.

Frozen bonito are customarily measured and auctioned off there by the cooperative after being shipped to the market from fishing boats.

The fish are then moved to warehouses outside the cooperative’s grounds.

Officials believe two shipping agency workers among the indicted five stole the popular fish by bypassing the measuring process and then moving the frozen bonito to a warehouse.

According to his testimony, when Yoshida became the head of a unit in the sales area at the market in April 2018, Kazuo Shindo, a 61-year-old former president of a marine food processing company, one of the five defendants, said to him, “Can’t you do something about the fish?”

Yoshida interpreted this remark as meaning, “Give me unmeasured bonito.”

He thought, “I will be paid a small amount of money for this. Above all, it’s hard to refuse Shindo’s request,” and took part in the theft.

Shindo said to him, “It’s OK because your boss did it (the theft), too.”

The cooperative received an anonymous letter in 2020 warning that fish theft was occurring at the fish market.

It led to four cooperative workers, including Yoshida, being summoned to a meeting room at the organization’s office.

“I couldn’t be honest and confess (the truth),” he told the court.

He also revealed to the court that he felt the cooperative wanted to cover up the theft when his boss at the time said to him, “I believe this (the theft accused in the letter) is not occurring?”

He confessed to the court that even before he became a unit chief in the sales area, he suspected that bonito were being stolen.

“Workers at the market’s sales area were spending their money lavishly and driving flashy cars,” he said.

He said he knew the thefts were wrong but continued to do so anyway.

“It became routine,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

Related News