Purify, Dilute and Dump
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) started discharging “processed” water into the Pacific Ocean on August 24 th with support of the government of Japan. While the government, having been leading the policy of releasing the water from storage tanks to the sea, insisted that it had received understandings on the project to a certain degree, there still are fundamental anxieties among the local stakeholders including fishermen about the released water in which radioactive material remains. The decision brought a fresh antagonism in the Northeast Asia, as China immediately raised the level of its regulation by banning all the seafood products from Japan. Although government of Japan expressed its objection against China through diplomatic channels, the impact of disseminating once contaminated water on regional relations and domestic seafood business must be beyond what it had anticipated. It is unclear whether Japan can manage the issue until the end of the discharging, which is expecte