Fish by phone

We hear that the Japanese take their fish very seriously, and when it comes to the issue of Japan's food safety, the Japanese consumer takes the more-info-the-better approach. They've already got a functioning beef tracking and data system by which the consumer can locate their steak's species, sex, stats, place-of-birth, farmer in charge, and location of the farm, all from a ID number on the beef packaging via any Internet connection. Now the fish business is the next food item to get the treatment and DoCoMo Sentsu (subsidiary of NTTDoCoMo) partnered with the Marine Fishery Systems Association to create a 2D barcode tracking system for all fish. Consumers can scan the barcode with their cellphones and determine even the name of the fisherman who caught the fish, the cooperative the fisherman belongs to and where the operations were conducted. Though we might like to know some info about our meal, we're thinking a full-on investigative background check on our grilled salmon plate is a bit much.