Bjørn E. Olsen
Bjørn Eirik Olsen is a Norwegian businessman and marketing strategist. He is also a kenjutsu practitioner and shihan of aikidō. He has been credited as "the inventor of salmon sushi".
Biography
In 1966, when Olsen was 11 years old, he attended a screening of Seven Samurai and developed a lifelong fascination with Japanese culture. Olsen studied at the University of Tromsø, the University of Oslo, and the Norwegian School of Economics. He later studied in Japan through a Monbukagakushō Scholarship.In 1986, the Norwegian government launched Project Japan — a campaign to establish Norwegian seafood in the Japanese market in order to create an outlet for overproductive Norwegian fisheries. In the late 1980s, Olsen was hired as a market researcher for the project.
Olsen tried to impress upon the Japanese the potential of salmon for sushi, but prospective buyers were reluctant because the Pacific salmon typical in Japan could not be eaten raw due to infestation by Anisakis common in the Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, Pacific salmon meat is relatively low in oil and therefore less suitable for sushi or sashimi. In order to differentiate Norwegian Atlantic salmon from Pacific salmon in the minds of Japanese consumers, Olsen branded the imported fish as "Noruē sāmon", using transcripted English instead of the usual Japanese sake. Advertizing campaigns using the Noruē sāmon brand were launched in cooperation with celebrity chefs including Ishinabe Yutaka.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Olsen managed to convince Nichirei to buy 5000 tonnes of Norwegian Atlantic salmon on the condition that it only be sold for raw consumption. The popularity of conveyor belt sushi after the collapse of the bubble economy in 1991 resulted in good sales, and salmon sushi was widely available across Japan by 1995.