China has lifted a ban on seafood imports from most regions of Japan, partially mending a years-long dispute over Tokyo’s handling of nuclear wastewater.
Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in 2023.
The move was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency but drew sharp criticism from Beijing, which banned imports of Japanese seafood as a result.
Samples from long-term monitoring of nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima had “not shown abnormalities”, China’s General Administration of Customs said in a statement Sunday.
As a result, China “decided to conditionally resume” seafood imports from Japan, with the exception of imports from 10 of the country’s 47 prefectures, including Fukushima and Tokyo, which remain banned.
In 2011, a huge earthquake triggered a deadly tsunami that swamped the Fukushima nuclear facility and pushed three of its six reactors into meltdown.
China, whose ties with Japan have long been strained by Tokyo’s imperial legacy, vociferously opposed the release of the treated wastewater, casting it as environmentally irresponsible.
Production companies that had suspended imports must reapply for registration in China and would be “strictly” supervised, Beijing’s customs administration said Sunday.
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AloJapan.com