Every year in Japan people are hospitalized after eating pufferfish; sometimes the result is fatal. However, despite apparent dangers, strict rules on serving the toxic delicacy in Tokyo are to be relaxed.
Aficionados say the tingle that the meat of the pufferfish leaves on your lips — caused by the potent neurotoxin it contains — is part of the appeal. They are undeterred by the fact that the numbness tetrodotoxin creates can progress to paralysis and breathing problems, or that, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, consumption can prove fatal within four to six hours and “the victim, although completely paralyzed, may be conscious and in some cases completely lucid until shortly before death.”
Diners at Shigekazu Suzuki’s restaurant, however, can be sure they are in no danger when they select their pufferfish — an ugly and, to the untutored eye, rather unappetizing looking creature — from a tank near the kitchen.
Photo: AFP
Suzuki is one of an exclusive coterie of Tokyo chefs who have undergone special training and licensing that allows them to serve the potentially fatal fish, known as fugu in Japan.
“It’s not easy for non-licensed people to clean fugu,” Suzuki said at his branch of the Torafugu-tei chain in up-market Ginza, as he stripped the toxic internal organs from the freshly killed fish with his razor-sharp knife.
“I have not eaten these bits because I’m scared,” he said, gripping the light yellow ovary — one of the most poisonous parts of the fish — and throwing it into a locked metal pot.
According to Suzuki, it takes about five years to pass the fugu license exam, which includes paper and practical tests on how to distinguish poisonous parts from others.
Stringent regulations are often credited with the low level of fatalities, but reports of fishermen dying after eating their own inexpertly prepared catch continue to surface.
And thrill-seeking diners sometimes ask to be served the banned internal organs. Occasionally, a chef will oblige.
In December last year, the Tokyo government revoked the license for a chef at a Michelin two-star restaurant after he had served the fish’s liver to a diner who asked for it. She recovered after a few days in hospital.
“Some people really want to try the dangerous parts because they think it might be really good,” said Mahiro Shin, a 33-year-old customer at Torafugu-tei.
“And sometimes some people get sick, but most people like us don’t take such risks,” he said.
A set meal of fugu hot pot at Torafugu-tei costs roughly ¥5,000 (US$63), but prices in some of the more exclusive restaurants in notoriously pricey Tokyo can rise to tens of thousands of yen.
However, the premium the seasonal delicacy attracts is easily justified, diner Yohei Watanabe said.
“It is a bit more expensive than regular fish, but it’s definitely worth it,” he said.
According to Japan’s health and welfare ministry, 17 people fell ill after eating fugu last year. One of them died.
Under the present system, restaurants in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, home to some 13 million people, can only serve fugu if they have a specially trained chef working on site.
However, in a move that surprised some observers, the authorities in the capital earlier this year announced plans to relax the rules.
From October eateries will be allowed to buy in ready prepared fugu — packaged or frozen, for example — provided it came from a licensed chef.
Unprepared fugu will continue to be banned from menus at restaurants without licensed personnel.
The rule change is more of a technicality to catch up with current practice, the authorities argue.
Tokyo consumers have long bought fugu meat from other areas of the country via the Internet, most notably from the southern Kyushu region known for its food.
“We have concluded that the revision of the regulation won’t lead to any chances of triggering fugu poisoning,” a Tokyo Metropolitan government official said.
Suzuki said he was not worried about competition when the new rules come into force.
“Due to the deregulation, more restaurants can serve fugu so that more customers can enjoy it and then will be properly aware of the culture of eating fugu,” the 44-year-old said.
“We licensed chefs will continue taking care of it properly,” he added.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not