Norway-based Proximar Seafood is a few months away from kicking off the construction of its recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) Atlantic salmon facility an hour away from Tokyo.

The Grieg-backed company plans to produce around 6,300 metric tons of salmon per year in the area near Mount Fuji and will be serving the domestic market mainly.

The plan is to have the first phase-out by 2023, the Managing Director Joachim Nielsen told IntraFish.

The company also plans to sell to neighboring Asian countries in the future.

The Norwegian firm recently signed a letter of intent to acquire additional land for the next stages of expansion.

Proximar Seafood will grow fish up to 5 kilograms inside its isolated biosecure building, with the support of Israeli-based RAS technology supplier AquaMaof. The two parties have been in collaboration since 2016 seeking a suitable location.

Proximar Seafood follows the footsteps of Chile-based Ecosalmon, the company that piloted a project in Miyagi, Japan, in the early 2000s to explore the possibility for farming salmon in the country.

Ecosalmon ceased its activities in the area a while back and went back to focusing on its Norwegian operations under the name Daimyo, whereby Proximar picked up where it had left off in Japan as of 2015.

In 2017, Grieg bit off 33.34 percent of the company's shares through its subsidiaries Loyden, Grieg Holding and New Kvasshogdi. Per Grieg serves as chairman of the company.

Daimyo also controls 31.76 percent of Proximar.

"At the moment, the shareholders who are also part of the board are responsible of financing the company, however, we are in the process of inviting new investors into the company and plan to see more strategic investors in the future," Nielsen said.

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