Japanese eel growers have asked the government to impose an emergency "safeguard" import curb to shield the domestic industry from a surge in imports, an industry body announced Tuesday.
The All Japan Eel Culture Association, based in Shizuoka Prefecture, made the request on April 25 to Yoshio Yatsu, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
In response, the farm ministry asked the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to investigate the state of the eel industry and the market, a procedure necessary to invoke the safeguard curb, government officials said.
World Trade Organization rules empower member countries to impose import restrictions if the domestic industry could suffer serious damage.
Imports, most of them from China and Taiwan, account for 90 percent of the Japanese eel market. The present number of Japanese companies engaged in eel growing, around 500, is only one-eighth the number of the industry's heyday in the mid-1970s, according to the association. Domestically grown eels are retailed at prices some 30 percent higher than those of imports.
"Japanese eel growers will be wiped out should the current situation be left unchecked," said Torami Murakami, president of the association. "We want the government to restrict the imports for two years or so, since we are willing to cut back on our business costs during that period."