Is this supposed to be some insightful criticism? They've been making the same product for 144 years, and managed to retain the technique from an era only 14 years prior. That's an achievement.

If a place started doing the same in 2017, guess what, they could still make it like they did in the Edo period.

Apart from a bit of machinery for lifting, and starting with frozen fish (which they thaw first anyway), it's basically all manual labour, including adjusting the fire temperature.

I normally use a quick search that has the `udm=web` query parameter to avoid the slop, but it seems they're putting less effort into ensuring relevant results there. Then, I'm forced to use AI mode to get to what I'm after, even if that's only a better set of keywords for a slopless search.

It does, and I already wrote about western countries being just as guilty of invading, if not more so. None of what you wrote contradicts my point that China is actively expanding and using mainly economic tactics to do it.