China Resumes Import of Japanese Seafoods

China announced that it would resume its import of seafood products from some parts of Japan, ending its complete ban on them since August 2023, when Japan started discharging “processed water” from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. It is estimated that China needs to rebuild economic ties with Japan in the time when it exacerbated relationship with the Unite States over tariffs.

After the severe accident in the Fukushima plant in 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), consulting with the government of Japan, has been accumulated used water after cooling crippled reactors in the site. Although TEPCO could not completely remove radioactive tritium, TEPCO and Japanese government decided to release the water against fundamental concern of neighbor countries.

 

China as well as the Republic of Korea expressed strongest concern on Japan’s decision among the nations around Japan. Immediately after the discharging water, China laid a complete ban against Japanese seafoods, regardless where they had been caught. The export of seafoods from Japan to China in 2022 amounted to 87.1 billion yen. That trade turned to zero after China banned Japanese seafoods in 2023.

 

The ban became a major diplomatic issue between Japan and China. Recognizing China as the biggest importer of Japanese seafoods, the government of Japan demanded China to lift the ban. Both governments agreed on eventually mitigating the trade ban with China’s participation to the monitoring of seawater and the processed water by International Atomic Energy Agency September, 2024. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba directly requested Chinese President Xi Jinping last November and China agreed on beginning the process for resuming import of Japanese seafoods.

 

Nevertheless, China has opened its market to Japan quite partly. It is still blocking foods from ten prefectures within Japan: Fukushima, Miyagi, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Nagano and Niigata. The ban on those ten prefectures started in 2011 after Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant exploded. Hongkong, with different import control from China, also maintains banning import from those ten prefectures. “We will continue to request China to resume import of beef and other foods from those ten prefectures and other countries including Republic of Korea and Hongkong to deregulate,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.

 

China’s trade ban continued nearly two years. The exporters in Japan sought other destination of their seafoods. For example, export of scallops from Japan increased to the United States or to Vietnam in 2024. Although seafood producers in Japan and Japanese restaurants in China welcome resumption of the trade, it is unclear whether China will return as the biggest importer of Japanese seafoods after the ban is removed.

 

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