Business Notes IMPORTS

Normally people's lives do not flash before their eyes when they eat sashimi. But a meal of Japanese fugu, or puffer fish, is no everyday dining experience. Because the fish's internal organs contain the nerve poison tetrodotoxin, Japanese gourmets rely on expert chefs to remove the toxic entrails before serving. Yet for several Japanese diners each year, usually those who clean the fish themselves, a fugu supper is their last.

Now adventurous diners can sample fugu outside Asia. Last week eight restaurants in Manhattan began serving the delicacy with approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which had conducted a four-year review of the importing venture arranged by Nobuyoshi Kuraoka, the proprietor of New York City's Nippon Restaurant. The puffer fish will be processed only by fugu chefs in the southern Japanese city of Shimonoseki, which has not lost a customer in 50 years. Japanese government officials will verify tetrodotoxin levels before the fugu is flash-frozen and flown to New York. Cost of a full- course fugu meal at Nippon Restaurant: $160.