Japanese Prime Minister asks China to lift ban on seafood imports

Recently, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asked China to lift the ban on Japanese seafood.

The order was imposed a year ago, shortly after treated radioactive water from the Fukushima plant was released into the sea on August 25, 2023.

China's ban is not based on scientific evidence and should be lifted immediately, Prime Minister Kishida said, adding that he would hold a ministerial meeting within a week to discuss a response to China's ban, before Japan draws up economic measures in the fall.

In addition, Mr. Kishida pledged to push for a law amendment to expand support for fishing vessels.

Prime Minister Kishida said he had monitored the testing process to detect radioactive materials in seafood at a local fish market, and even tasted Ise tuna and shrimp to prove the safety of these products.

The fisheries industry in Fukushima Prefecture has been hit hard by China's comprehensive ban on seafood imports from Japan.

The Japanese government is trying to diversify its export markets to countries outside of China, including those in North America and Southeast Asia, but it is still difficult to make up for the shortfall in exports to its neighbor.

Despite Japan's efforts, China still opposes the release of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which leaked radiation after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

A year ago, Japan began discharging treated radioactive wastewater from the plant into the Pacific Ocean.

To date, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has discharged more than 60,000 tons of contaminated water treated with the Advanced Liquid Treatment System (ALPS), which removes most contaminants except tritium, a relatively non-toxic substance.

The decision to release the water into the sea was proposed by the Japanese government in April 2021, to treat the amount of radioactive water that had been treated and stored in tanks at the plant to free up space, supporting the decommissioning process of the nuclear complex, which is expected to last for decades.

The water discharge continued despite protests from China and the local fishing industry.

According to the Japanese government, since the discharge began, no abnormalities have been detected in monitoring the seawater around the plant, including the concentration of radioactive tritium.