Sustainability | namino leather - Japanese Finest Fish Leather

Upcycling from skin to leather.

Many people consume the fully-farmed yellowtail known as “KUROSE BURI.“
Roughly two million of these fish are produced annually.
After being processed as needed, they are consumed as a familiar food throughout the world.

About 46%^*1 of the bodies of yellowtail species is consumed for food.
Parts that are generated the process of processing the fish for food but are not eaten, such as the head, bones, tail and skin, make up the remaining 54%.^*2
This means that more than half the fish can't be eaten. Up to now, those portions were used in the likes of animal feed.
However, the question remained: Isn't there a more effective way to use those finite resources?
What if it were possible to tan "skin" to turn it into “leather?“
Meanwhile, in Europe, fish leather had already been realized as a product.

We seek to make leather out of fish skin. Why commit the wasteful act of throwing those uneaten parts away?
It turns out there were tanners in Japan who shared the same sentiment.
These craftspeople had developed proprietary methods that gave them the ability to create high-quality fish leather.
The marriage of those craftspeople and us resulted in the birth of “namino leather.“

*1 *2 Source: "Yield Survey of Fishery Products (Percentage of Edible Portion)," Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market

100% Artificial Seedlings

“KUROSE BURI“ is fully farmed using 100% artificial seedlings (using juveniles whose eggs are cultivated and nursed under human control), a first for yellowtail species in the world.

Unlike general yellowtail farming that starts from collecting wild juveniles, this method involves farming from the egg cultivation stage, making it a sustainable method that does not adversely impact natural resources.

Additionally, thorough breeding management results in only the very best individual juveniles being combined, which in turn makes it possible to stably secure individual fish that are larger than those farmed from wild juveniles.

100% Established Traceability

General procurement routes are difficult to trace due to the intervention of various vendors from the farming up to the processing stage. However, because the skins used for namino leather are made through integrated production conducted at a single location from farming to food processing, its traceability is fully established. Plus, because procurement using stable routes is established. a fixed level of quality can be stably maintained for size and skin condition.

International Certification

“KUROSE BURI” is farmed under various initiatives such as the reduction of the burden on the ocean environment and dependence on natural resources as well as animal welfare. These initiatives have been granted various international certifications.

*3 Not 100% of our fish, but we will gradually produce more.