Oysters are a seafood loved by the whole world and are called “milk of the sea”, “the king of protein in nature” due to their high nutritional content including proteins such as glycogen and amino acids, minerals such as calcium and zinc.
Japan is fortunate to be home to many oyster varieties and oysters have been cultivated for over 470 years. Oysters are found in the wild along the coast of Japan, and can be harvested quite easily. Oyster farming has been practiced since the early Tenbun period (1532 – 1555) and has since become popular in Asia, North America, Australia, Europe and New Zealand. There are 4 largest oyster farming regions in Japan: Hokkaido, Miyagi, Hiroshima and Iwate, of which Hiroshima is the largest oyster region in Japan, accounting for about 60-70% of Japan’s oyster production.
Pacific oysters, harvested in winter, and Iwagaki oysters, harvested in summer, are the two main types of oysters in Japan. Iwagaki oysters are larger than Pacific oysters and are mostly harvested from the wild. Pacific oyster farming productivity in Japan is very high and is harvested semi-automatically. Japan’s oyster farming productivity is currently 30 – 50 times higher than that of Pacific oysters in Van Don. This is an issue that BAVABI is researching to apply Japanese oyster farming technology transfer to improve farming productivity in Van Don. 
Image 1: Oyster harvesting in Hiroshima
Image 2: Oyster harvesting in Van Don with productivity many times lower than in Hiroshima
In parallel with high-yield farming, oyster cuisine in Japan is very developed with many special dishes Examples include raw oysters Sashimi with soy sauce or ponzu, fried oysters, grilled oysters, oyster dipping sauce or oyster rice (donburi) including Kaki furai (fried oysters) which is one of Japan’s most popular Western-influenced dishes today.
