https://www.npr.org/2015/09/18/441530790/how-the-desperate-norwegian-salmon-industry-created-a-sushi-staple

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How The Desperate Norwegian Salmon Industry Created A Sushi Staple
Salmon is a staple of sushi now, but it used to be unheard of in
Japan to eat raw salmon. The story of how Norway convinced Japan to
love salmon sushi.
 
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Planet Money

How The Desperate Norwegian Salmon Industry Created A Sushi Staple

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September 18, 20154:31 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

Jess Jiang

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How The Desperate Norwegian Salmon Industry Created A Sushi Staple

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Salmon is a staple of sushi now, but it used to be unheard of in
Japan to eat raw salmon. The story of how Norway convinced Japan to
love salmon sushi.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Like shrimp and tuna, salmon is very popular with Americans. Diners
love it even as sushi. But in sushi's birthplace, Japan, raw salmon
wasn't always on the menu. Jess Jiang of our Planet Money podcast has
the story of salmon sushi's rocky start.

JESS JIANG, BYLINE: Shimao Ishikawa has been a sushi chef for over 40
years. He works at a sushi restaurant in Manhattan called Jewel Bako.
Ishikawa's served and eaten all the hard-core things, like sea
urchin, poisonous blowfish. But in all his years as a sushi chef,
he's never taken a single bite of one of his best sellers, raw
salmon.

SHIMAO ISHIKAWA: I will not eat salmon, no.

JIANG: Wait, never?

ISHIKAWA: Yeah, I never eat salmon, you know.

JIANG: Can we get you to try it today?

ISHIKAWA: (Laughter) Tomorrow, manana.

JIANG: Ishikawa's aversion is not unusual among the Japanese because
for much of sushi's history, salmon was a fish you did not eat raw.
Then 30 years ago, a group launched a plan to change that, a group
halfway around the world.

BJORN EIRIK OLSEN: Hello, Bjorn Eirik here.

JIANG: Bjorn Eirik Olsen's from Norway. He says in the '80s, the
country had a problem; they had too much salmon. The government hired
Bjorn to sell it to the country that's famous for eating fish. Bjorn
figured, easy. He went to Tokyo, got a bunch of Japanese fish
industry executives together, and he unveiled the next big thing,
salmon sushi.

OLSEN: And they say, it's impossible. We Japanese do not eat salmon
roll. They say, it doesn't taste good. They say the color is wrong
also; it should be redder. It has a smell. And they say that the head
has the wrong shape.

JIANG: Basically, people in Japan thought it was gross. Bjorn's big
challenge was this. He needed to change the perception of an entire
country, change that visceral reaction. The salmon people in Japan
were used to eating had parasites, so they always cooked it. Bjorn
says Norwegian salmon's different. Parasites aren't a problem. But he
couldn't run an ad that said, don't worry; our salmon is parasite
free.

OLSEN: We didn't want to mention it at all because if you say that my
fish has no poison and you say it's no parasite; it's no bad things
in it.

JIANG: Yeah, the first thing they'll think of is - is there - there's
poison?

OLSEN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JIANG: Instead, Bjorn made ads that focused on the pure, fresh
Norwegian waters. That did not work. And back in Norway, the salmon
industry was getting desperate. The glut of salmon had gotten so bad,
they started filling industrial freezers with tons and tons of
salmon. Bjorn says there was a lot of pressure for him to give up the
dream of salmon sushi. But he wouldn't. He thought all he needed was
one big sale. He went to a company called Nishi Rei. He'd been
talking to them for a few years. Everybody in Japan knows them. They
sell frozen food - dumplings, chicken nuggets, squid. Bjorn told
them, I will sell you 5,000 tons of salmon for cheap. All you have to
do is sell it in the grocery stores as sushi; just try it. Nishi Rei
said yes. Bjorn had his deal.

OLSEN: It was a day of happiness. I remember that, and there was a
feeling of making history.

JIANG: Once Nishi Rei started selling salmon for sushi, it somehow
seemed more normal. Tadashi Ono grew up in Tokyo. He says he
remembers trying salmon sushi in the early days.

TADASHI ONO: Yeah, at first time I said, eh, but, you know, second
time, maybe, third time, OK, you know? (Laughter) It's actually
buttery. It's creamy, melt-in-your-mouth. You know, it's very soft
meat.

JIANG: Salmon sushi started showing up all over Japan, especially at
the cheap sushi restaurants, the ones with the conveyor belts. Bjorn
realized salmon sushi had become a thing when a few years later, he
was walking around Tokyo and he noticed the little plastic sushi
replicas in the restaurant windows.

OLSEN: And then suddenly, I saw there was salmon now, plastic copies
in the sushi shops. I could see it around in Tokyo. And then I
thought, this is really a breakthrough.

JIANG: Japan helped out Norway's fish problem, but Bjorn says Norway
actually helped out Japan, too. Salmon is one of the reasons sushi
got big around the world. It's mild. It's fatty. Kids like it. It's a
gateway fish. Jess Jiang, NPR News.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor.
This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised
in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative
record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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