Customs authorities searched Marubeni Corp.'s head office Thursday on suspicion that the major trading house evaded duties on octopuses imported from Africa, customs officials said.
Marubeni is the third company, after Maruha Corp. and Toyota Tsusho Corp., to be investigated recently for allegedly evading duties on imported octopuses.
Marubeni's octopus imports from Mauritania, one of the countries whose exports are exempt from duties, showed a more than five-fold increase in 1999 from the year before.