Eel exec in label scam guilty, fined

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday sentenced the former chairman of a food processing and sales company to a suspended two-year prison term for falsely labeling and selling Chinese eel as those raised in Japan.

The court also ordered Hayama Nakamura, 67, former chairman of Tokyo-based Hamashin, to pay a ¥1 million fine.

Nakamura and an accomplice labeled about 5,400 packages of grilled eel products made from eel farmed in China as originating from Kagoshima Prefecture in May 2008 and sold them to a Tokyo wholesaler for about ¥2.9 million.

Judge Toshiaki Fujii ruled that Nakamura was the main culprit in the scam.

"(The defendant) violated the principle of fair competition in the market and pursued profits without considering the safety of the food products for consumers," the judge said, adding it was a "crime against social morals that immensely damaged the trust of citizens."

The court also sentenced former Hamashin executive Isamu Fukushima, 66, to a suspended 18-month prison term for helping Nakamura perpetrate the crime.