Japan resumes seafood exports to China after Beijing eases 2023 ban
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At present, only three Japanese exporters are allowed to ship their seafood products to China.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TOKYO – Japan has resumed seafood shipments to China for the first time since Beijing banned imports in 2023
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference that the government takes it “positively” that six tonnes of frozen scallops from northern island Hokkaido were shipped to China on Nov 5.
Farm minister Norikazu Suzuki said at a separate news conference that 600kg of salted sea cucumbers will follow on Nov 10. According to a source close to the matter, the sea cucumbers are from Aomori prefecture in north-eastern Japan.
China introduced a blanket ban in August 2023 as a demonstration of its strong opposition to the ocean discharge agreed in June
Japanese exporters are required to register their facilities with the Chinese authorities and submit certificates for radioactivity inspection for their fishery products before shipping them.
So far, only three facilities have been allowed to export, with registrations for hundreds more pending.
A separate ban remains on imports of marine and other products from 10 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, including Fukushima, Miyagi and Tokyo, that was imposed after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear disaster.
China’s resumption of Japanese seafood imports comes as the two neighbours aim to stabilise ties that have often been strained by issues related to territory and wartime history, at a time of intensifying Sino-US rivalry and trade tensions under President Donald Trump.
China has also completed a key step towards restarting Japanese beef imports, which were halted following an outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan in 2001, with Beijing finishing its domestic quarantine procedures in July, according to the Japanese government. KYODO NEWS
