Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called on China to lift its blanket ban on Japanese seafood, which was imposed shortly after the country began discharging treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea exactly one year ago on Saturday.

China’s ban is a “measure that is not based on any science at all and is unacceptable,” Kishida told representatives of the local fishing cooperative in Fukushima Prefecture. “Japan is pushing for an immediate lifting (of the ban) and is demanding this at all levels.”

A ministerial meeting will be held within a week to discuss responses to China’s ban before economic measures are decided in the fall, Kishida told reporters in Fukushima. He inspected the process of testing seafood for radioactive substances at a local fish market and demonstrated its safety by eating bonito and Ise shrimp sashimi.

Kishida, who will resign as prime minister after deciding not to run in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election next month, also stressed that he would push for a change in the law to expand support for fishing vessels.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida watches a worker prepare fish at the Onahama fish market in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on Aug. 24, 2024. (Pool photo) (Kyodo)

The fishing industry in Fukushima Prefecture is struggling due to China’s blanket ban on imports of seafood from Japan.

The Japanese government is working to diversify exports to countries outside China, including North America and Southeast Asia, but the deficit remains due to the decline in exports to the neighboring country.

Despite Japan’s repeated efforts to challenge the ban, China remains critical of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered a nuclear meltdown following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and describes the water as “nuclearly contaminated.”

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. has so far released over 60,000 tons of treated water, which has been processed through an advanced liquid treatment system (ALPS) to remove most contaminants except for the relatively non-toxic tritium.

The Japanese government decided in April 2021 to discharge the water into the sea, arguing that the treated water stored in tanks at the site needed to be disposed of to make room and facilitate the decommissioning of the nuclear complex, a process that is expected to take decades.

The release took place despite resistance from China and the local fishing industry, who feared reputational damage.

Since the discharge began, no abnormalities have been detected in the monitoring of the seawater around the power plant, including the concentration of the radioactive substance tritium, the government said.

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