“Mitsubishi Worlds Largest Tuna Trader”ff

Written by Rory Moulton

Bluefin tuna weigh up to 1,500 pounds and live for 40 years. Roman legions are said to have subsisted primarily on dried bluefin tuna on conquests throughout their far-flung empire. An increase in global demand for sushi has pushed the bluefin harvest to unsustainable levels.

It is estimated that 60,000 tons of bluefin were taken last year. The nonprofit watchdog group International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recommends 15,000 tons a year to prevent extinction. A November agreement to limit this year’s take to 15,000 tons fell apart when the world’s largest bluefin consumer, Japan, bailed at the last moment.

Mitsubishi is the world’s largest tuna trader. It operates state-of-the-art tuna ranches in the Mediterranean’s deep waters, where juvenile bluefin tuna swim into massive nets and are fattened over a period of months before being hauled out, processed in floating factories and then shipped to Japan.

Much of the world’s bluefin tuna is processed, sold and distributed in the Osaka Central Wholesale Market in the bustling port city of Osaka, Japan’s traditional trade hub on Honshu Island.

Not all bluefin arrive in Osaka processed. It’s up to the market’s processors, tuna samurai swordsmen, to carefully cut the fish by hand, often in front of delighted, wildly entertained crowds.