Abstract:
Japan has about 10% and 15% share for the consumption and trade of marine products respectively, and the trend has
significant impacts on world markets. Thus the purpose of this article is to estimate the income elasticity of the demand, that
includes all kinds of fish usage such as eating out and cooked foods as well as fresh materials for cooking in the household,
and to analyze price linkages between domestic and foreign markets.
As a result of estimating demand function by commodity, it was found that a) the income elasticity of demand for all
usage is higher than that for household material, for many commodities, and b) tuna, bonito, salmon, left-eye flounder, sea
bream, shrimp and crab show positive income elasticity.
The analysis of price linkage for tuna, salmon, mackerel and shrimp showed that a) Japanese CIF price correlates with
world average FOB price for salmon, implying that the prices are determined simultaneously, and b) there exist a time-lag for
domestic price to be transmitted to foreign markets for tuna and frozen shrimp, though the lag is for some months.
Therefore, Japanese recovery from economic recession will give rise to price hike in world markets for tuna and shrimp,
for which supply potentials are worried due to the resources limitation and environmental contamination.
