"Demand for Marine Products in Japan"
Bulletin of the National Research Institute of Fisheries Science (forthcoming),
National Research Institute of Fisheries Science (NRIFS)
Summary
Japan is one of the main importers of marine products in the world, and domestic prices of some commodities such as tuna, salmon and shrimp are interdependent with the foreign prices. Thus the purpose of this article is to analyze the long-term trend of Japanese demand for fishes by commodity, especiaally focusing on the income elasticity of demand, thereby to get information necessary for forecasting price changes of the world markets under the situation of limited fisheries resources.
As a result of estimating demand functions of fishes, we found that the income elasticity of total demand, that include the demand for eating out and cooked foods as well as household food materials, is higher than that of household demand for most commodities. Especially the total demand for tuna, bonito, salmon, flatfish, sea bream, shrimp and crab has positive income elasticity. If Japanese economy recovers from recession and their supply potential are limited due to the resource constraints and environmental contamination, the demand for these commodities is forecasted to increase and the prices will rise.