Echizen Town suspends crab gifts following GI Law violations

Echizen Town in Fukui Prefecture is facing significant economic and reputational consequences following violations of the Geographical Indication (GI) protection system regarding its “Echizen Crab” hometown tax (Furusato Nozei) gifts.

An investigation revealed that one seafood processing company mixed “mizu-gani” (soft-shell snow crabs that do not meet GI standards) into products labeled as “Echizen Crab” for approximately five and a half years. This affected over 4,700 orders, totaling roughly 100 million yen in donations. Additionally, 11 other businesses were found to have used misleading labels, such as using the term “Echizen” alone, which the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) stated could lead consumers to mistakenly believe they were purchasing protected Echizen Crab.

MAFF has issued a formal administrative order to Echizen Town, marking the first time such an order has been issued directly to a local government rather than a private entity. The town has suspended all crab-related gift offerings for the time being, a move estimated to impact approximately 600 million yen in potential tax donations. The town administration cited a lack of understanding of the GI system as the reason for failing to address the issue sooner.