Salmon tops sushi survey

Tokyo-based seafood company Maruha Nichiro conducted an internet survey from 6 to 8 March of 1,000 people aged 15 to 59 in the Kanto and Kansai regions who eat at “kaiten” (rotary) sushi shops at least once a month. The company asked what kinds of toppings the participants had recently eaten and calculated the percentage of subjects who had eaten each kind of topping. 

Salmon was the leader for the sixth consecutive year, especially among women, at 52.4 percent. This is over 20 points ahead of second-placed tuna, which 31 percent of women had eaten. 

The top 10 items for all respondents were: salmon (46.3), tuna (red meat) at 34.2, yellowtail (30.2), fatty tuna belly (30.1), squid (22.5), green onion and fatty tuna belly (21.2), raw shrimp (18.6), horse mackerel (17.4), halibut dorsal fin muscle (“engawa” in Japanese)  at 16.8, and salmon eggs (16.7). 

Changes from years past are that squid has fallen a bit and egg is no longer in the top ten.

In the same survey, 54 percent of respondents said that they had been on a date to a conveyor-belt restaurant – significant because such places are sometimes considered to be fast food. 

They also rated bad behaviors, including: eating only the topping while leaving the rice, wearing strong fragrances, getting upset at wait-times to be seated, taking someone else’s order, placing an order and then having it rejected, returning a plate grabbed accidentally, reaching over the conveyor belt to grab a plate from the opposite side, preparing your own tea and soy sauce without offering them to your date, making your date grab your plates from the conveyor for you, and competing to eat the highest number of plates.