Umios Wins Communications Category at MSC Japan Awards 2026 Recognized for Awareness-Raising and Food Education Activities to Promote MSC-Labeled Seafood

Umios Corporation has won the communications category at the MSC Japan Awards 2026, organized by Chuo-ku, Tokyo-based MSC Japan.

Established by MSC Japan in 2024, the MSC Japan Awards recognize businesses that have contributed to expanding the availability and use of seafood bearing the blue MSC label¹ in Japan. This year, awards were presented in four categories. The retail, processor, and food service categories were based on the weight of MSC-labeled seafood sold to consumers in MSC’s 2025 fiscal year, from April 2025 to March 2026, while the communications category recognized initiatives that helped raise consumer awareness and promote the use of MSC-labeled seafood.

The award recognizes Umios’s sustained efforts to inform consumers about MSC-certified seafood and raise awareness of it. Particular recognition was given to the cooking classes for parents and children that the company has held since 2012 using MSC-certified seafood. By helping participants understand the environmental considerations behind their ingredients and the importance of sustainable fishing, these classes have contributed to food education for the next generation. Umios’s own media platforms, Sakana X (Sakana Cross) and umito., were also recognized for helping raise consumer awareness by sharing information on sustainable seafood².

The Umios Group has identified “providing food that contributes to health value creation and sustainability” as one of the priority issues (materiality) in the sustainability strategy under its Medium-Term Management Plan, “For the ocean, for life 2027.” The Group is expanding the volume of products it handles that are certified as sustainable, including MSC-certified seafood. It will continue to pursue business activities that take the global environment into consideration and work toward a sustainable society.

¹An international certification label administered by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). It identifies seafood caught by fisheries that have been assessed as meeting the MSC’s environmental sustainability requirements.
² Seafood certified under schemes recognized by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI), including MSC, Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), and Marine Eco-Label Japan (MEL) certification

Reference Links (in Japanese only)

• Past Umios cooking classes:

• Sakana X (Sakana Cross), Umios’s own media platform that communicates the diverse value of fish by exploring connections between fish and a variety of themes and topics:

• umito., Umios’s own media platform that shares information to deepen readers’ appreciation of the ocean and fish: