RFID in Japan

So, what's new with Awabi (a kind of shell fish) RFID ?

Mainichi Shimbun reported that Miyagi Prefecture's Fishery Association has finally developed RFID-based tags that are to be attached to indivisual shell fish. RFID chips are used to trace Awabi throughout the supply chain, thereby making it easier to detect illegally fished Awabi.

Awabi can only be fiished on "Kaikou" days - only several days a year. It is illegal to catch Awabi before those "Kaikou" days and secretly make them slip into the supply chain.

The new RFID-based tags are used to detect such illegally caught Awaby by storing information such as a beach name, dates and shipping destination in RFID chips. This information is referred to as Awabi's "census registration" . Any Awabi without it will be eliminated from the supply chain.

The current solution to this problem requires extensive human labor, i.e, to cruise around with patrol ships. So, expextations on RFID seem to be high.

via Yahoo News, November 2, in Japanese

Posted by konomi at November 6, 2004 09:04 PM | TrackBack