The local Japanese common octopus has a firmness of flesh and depth of flavor not found in foreign octopus.
The common octopus lives on reefs and is mainly caught by using octopus traps that take advantage of their habit of hiding between rocks.
Together with a decrease in the catch of the domestic common octopus, imports from places such as Morocco and Mauritania in Africa have increased in recent years, making the domestic octopus expensive.
In general, compared with imports, the Japanese octopus is a deeper red, and turns a reddish-brown after being boiled.
Also, while the inside of the suction cups of imported octopus is white, on Japanese octopus it is a light reddish-brown.