Anguilla japonica

The Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica; nihon unagi (日本鰻)) is a species of anguillid eel found in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, and Vietnam, as well as the northern Philippines. Like all the eels of the genus Anguilla and the family Anguillidae, it is catadromous, meaning it spawns in the sea but lives most of its adult life in freshwater. In Japan, it is called unagi, and is an essential part of the food culture, with many restaurants serving grilled eel called kabayaki. However, presumably due to a combination of overfishing and habitat loss or changing water conditions in the ocean interfering with spawning and the transport of their leptocephali this species is endangered. In Japan, research has been conducted on the full life-cycle aquaculture of the Japanese eel as a means of addressing the underlying problem of declining wild populations. In 2010, Japan became the first country to induce spawning using broodstock that had been raised from artificially obtained eggs. In 2026, kabayaki prepared from fully farmed Japanese eel was commercially introduced for the first time.