Promotion fish: why yellowtail and sea bass change their names as they grow, and why the names differ by region

On a Japanese menu the same fish can appear under several names, and not because of a translation problem. Buri (Japanese amberjack, often called yellowtail) and suzuki (Japanese sea bass) are shusse-uo, “promotion fish”: like a man rising through the ranks, they take a new name at each size. The names differ by region, and so do the official accounts of when the fish is at its best.

For sashimi in general — cuts, labels, safety — start from the sashimi overview.

The names

Buri. Chiba prefecture calls it a promotion fish, like suzuki:

• Kantō: wakashi → inada → warasa → buri.
• Kansai: tsubasu → hamachi → mejiro → buri.

Mie prefecture names it by age: inada at one year, warasa at two, buri at three.

Toyama has more. A 2015 column in the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Newsletter by Nakai Seiichi, a professor at the University of Toyama, maps them: in eastern Toyama, tsubaiso → fukuragi → ganto → buri (or tsubaiso → fukuragi → hamachi → buri); in the west, kozukura → fukuragi → ganto → buri; at Nadaura in Himi, five stages — kozukura → fukuragi → nimaizuru → ganto → buri. Inland, three stages are common; in the mountains, one or two (fukuragi → buri, or just buri). The line between ganto and buri is given as 5 kg. That is a researcher’s column, not an official source.

Suzuki. Chiba gives seigo → fukko → suzuki. It says Tokyo Bay leads Japan’s landings at 2,000 tonnes a year, and that suzuki is famous in summer as arai.

What hamachi means

In the Kansai sequence, hamachi is a young buri. The consumer agency’s labelling Q&A uses “tuna (wild) and hamachi (farmed)” as an example of a mixed platter, and that example is sometimes read as “hamachi means farmed”. I found no official source saying so, and the regional naming above shows hamachi is first a size name. Ask, or read the label.

When it is best

The sources disagree, and this page leaves them side by side:

• Chiba: winter, as kan-buri, “cold-season buri”, is when it is fattest; summer’s inada has less fat but a lighter taste.
• Mie: in western Japan, including the Kumano coast, spring is the season; wild buri are caught from February to April, and farmed buri all year. Its main dishes are sashimi, teriyaki, buri with radish, and salt-grilled.

Handling the fish

Hokkaido’s research institute explains why handling matters for buri and mackerel. Ikejime is the general term for treating a live fish to keep its quality after death; its example cuts the spinal cord to kill at once and cuts the gills to bleed it, on board. Nojime is letting the catch die untreated, for example in iced holds. Killing at once avoids the muscle activity of a struggling death, saves the fish’s energy compound and delays rigor, it says. Its freshness guide: a K value of 20% or less for eating raw, though the rate of change differs greatly between species.

What it costs

I could not find official tax-included prices for buri or suzuki sashimi at specialist restaurants. For a chain example, Isomaru Suisan’s April 2026 boat platter was ¥2,639 including tax, contents unlisted.

The same fish, a different name

• Order by local name. The same fish is inada in Tokyo and hamachi in Osaka at a similar size, and Toyama has names of its own.
• Season depends on the source. A winter fish in Chiba, a spring one on Mie’s coast.
• No official ranking. No source compares buri eaten at Himi with buri eaten in Tokyo, so this page does not.

What people get wrong

• “Hamachi and buri are different fish.” Hamachi is a stage of buri in the Kansai names.
• “Hamachi always means farmed.” No official source I found says so.
• “Buri is only good in winter.” Chiba says winter; Mie says spring.
• “The names are the same everywhere.” Toyama alone has several sequences.