THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 27, 2023 at 13:13 JST
Sumibi-shokunin Unami, an eel restaurant, in Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, on Dec. 26 (Reo Komeda)
NISHIO, Aichi Prefecture—An eel restaurant here became so popular through a tax program that it was forced to falsely label foreign products as Japanese to keep up with demand, the owner said on Dec. 26.
The Sumibi-shokunin Unami restaurant started mislabeling eels from China and Taiwan as Mikawa-grown eels in 2020, the owner told reporters.
Police on Dec. 20 raided the restaurant on suspicion of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Law.
Nishio is located in Mikawa, one of the leading eel-producing areas in Japan. The restaurant’s signage states that it uses eels only from Mikawa.
The restaurant’s “kabayaki” grilled eel sets have been popular as return gifts used in the government’s “furusato nozei” (hometown tax payment) program.
Under the program, people can make tax-deductible donations to support a preferred municipality, usually their hometowns, and receive a return gift of their choice from the municipality.
The manager said the volume of eels required for in-store sales and return gifts had increased so rapidly that the restaurant was constantly running out of Mikawa-grown eels.
According to the Nishio city government, the restaurant’s kabayaki gifts were chosen for about 40,000 donations in fiscal 2022.
The restaurant said it gave priority to using Mikawa products as return gifts.
The city has suspended the acceptance of donations under the program since Dec. 21.
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