Which Norwegian businessman helped promote salmon sushi in Japan through Project Japan?

Bjørn Eirik Olsen was the Norwegian businessman who helped promote salmon sushi in Japan through Project Japan.

Norway launched Project Japan in 1986 to find new markets for its expanding salmon industry. Olsen worked as a market analyst and strategist, studying Japanese seafood consumption and trying to persuade buyers that Norwegian Atlantic salmon could work as a raw sushi ingredient.

Japanese consumers had traditionally been wary of raw salmon because wild Pacific salmon could carry Anisakis parasites. Norwegian farmed Atlantic salmon offered important differences: controlled farming reduced parasite concerns, and the fish was relatively fatty and well suited to sushi. Olsen and his colleagues also promoted it as “Norwegian salmon” to distinguish it from familiar Pacific salmon.

The change was gradual. In the early 1990s, Olsen helped secure a major purchase by Nichirei, and salmon sushi became increasingly visible as conveyor-belt sushi expanded. By the mid-1990s, it was widely available in Japan. Masayoshi Kazato and Jiro Ono are sushi figures, but neither led this Norwegian market campaign.