Japanese Fishing Town Develops Gourmet Specialty Soup Utilizing Tilefish Leftovers Though City Govt Council Initiative

By Toshikatsu Kizaki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

16:06 JST, March 8, 2026

A council formed by such entities as the Hagi city government and a local fishing cooperative in Yamaguchi Prefecture have jointly developed a soup using fish parts that would otherwise be discarded, as part of efforts to make use of underutilized parts of locally landed amadai tilefish.

The first gourmet sample, called “Hagi no Jizakana Fish Curry” (Hagi local fish curry), was created in December. The plan is for the product to be sold at local restaurants and for school lunches.

According to national statistics, the prefecture’s annual tilefish catch in 2023 was the highest in the country at 243 tons. Over half of the fish is landed at the Hagi regional wholesale market, where intermediate wholesalers process it into frozen fillets and other offerings, according to the city. Between April and July, daily fish offcuts totaled about 20 to 30 kilograms per intermediate wholesaler. Currently, they are all discarded.

To make use of the parts, the council, tasked with promoting Hagi as a city with delicious seasonal fish, launched an initiative to use leftover local tilefish in September and started developing seafood soup. In mid-November, the council bought tilefish scraps from intermediate wholesalers at ¥500 per kilogram, and commissioned a processing company to develop a prototype sample of 500-gram seafood soup retort pouches.

The sample was made by oven roasting such fish parts as offcuts and bones to remove any unpleasant odors, before simmering in a pot for about two hours to extract the broth. In the latest trial, fatty farmed yellowtail king fish scraps were also added to retain the soup’s flavor even when added to a spicy curry dish, resulting in a rich taste.

In early December, a review meeting was held in the city to consider adding the curry infused with the soup, Hagi no Jizakana Fish Curry, to school lunch recipes. A Tokyo restaurant chef and school lunch cooks conducted multiple trials, which they said resulted in a mild, but appetizing curry with a strong fish flavor that lingers in the mouth with each bite.

In February, about 10 restaurants in the city offered the fish curry as a local specialty. The Hagi city government is considering holding a “Hagi local fish curry fair” as part of a large-scale tourism project being conducted by Japan Railways companies and municipalities in Yamaguchi Prefecture from October to December.

“Since the seafood soup is concentrated, it can be used in ramen or hot pot dishes, depending on how you use it,” said a representative from the council’s secretariat in the city’s fisheries division. “We will continue development so it can be utilized in gourmet dishes unique to Hagi.”