Hokkaido Seafood Company Goes Bankrupt Due to Stalled Exports to China

According to Japan's UHB Hokkaido News, on September 3: The Hokkaido-based wild sea cucumber processing and sales company "Kaiō Bussan" announced its closure and filed for bankruptcy with the Sapporo District Court.

As reported by Japan’s Teikoku Databank, "Kaiō Bussan" has liabilities amounting to approximately 1.532 billion yen (about 64 million RMB). Established in June 2007, the company specialized in processing natural salted and dried sea cucumbers sourced from Hokkaido, primarily exporting to mainland China and Hong Kong.

The company once benefited from a surge in demand for sea cucumbers in mainland China and Hong Kong, which boosted its export business and enabled corporate expansion. By May 2018, its annual sales reached about 1.812 billion yen (approximately 76 million RMB).

However, since 2020, exports have stagnated due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2023, Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant began discharging treated radioactive wastewater into the ocean, leading to a complete ban on imports of Japanese seafood from both mainland China and Hong Kong—markets that had previously sustained the company's operations. As a result, its primary export markets came to a standstill.

By 2025, signs of easing emerged in the export market, and negotiations between China and Japan resumed regarding seafood exports. Yet, following Haruko Uno’s remarks in November 2025 about “Taiwan being an issue,” relations between the two countries plummeted, causing sea product exports to remain stagnant. The hope for Kaiō Bussan to restart exports to China was ultimately shattered.

As of May 2025, annual sales were approximately 740 million yen (about 31 million RMB). With no sign of further recovery, prospects looked bleak, and the company ceased all sea cucumber processing operations on August 31, 2026. On September 2, "Kaiō Bussan" filed for bankruptcy with the Sapporo District Court.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1875273057637452/

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