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| China announced a ban on all seafood imports from Japan after the country released water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, August 24. (Source: Kyodo) |
According to Yonhap news agency on August 26, Japan's seafood market is being strongly affected by China's announcement of a ban on the import of all Japanese seafood products after the Japanese government began releasing contaminated water from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant into the sea on August 24.
Not only mainland China, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China) also increased the number of provinces and centrally-governed cities in Japan banned from importing seafood from 5 to 10.
Before the above decisions, the fishing industry of the Land of the Rising Sun is being severely affected.
This is not the first time China has banned Japanese food imports. More than 10 years ago, China announced a ban on food imports, including seafood, from 10 Japanese prefectures following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident.
In early July 2023, Beijing once again ordered comprehensive radiation checks on seafood imported from Japan.
China and Hong Kong (China) are the No. 1 and No. 2 export markets for Japanese seafood. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan's seafood exports to China and Hong Kong (China) in 2022 will be 87.1 billion yen (about 594 million USD) and 75.5 billion yen, respectively.
Zenshow Holdings, a Japanese conveyor belt sushi company, said it will stop selling scallops and salmon roe because its Chinese stores cannot buy Japanese seafood.
According to credit information company Deikoku Databank, there are about 700 Japanese food companies exporting to China, of which 164 are related to seafood.
Tokyo is asking Beijing to lift its ban on seafood imports and consider supporting fishermen.
Speaking to the press on August 24, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said that the government will respond flexibly, including using support funds to minimize the negative impact on fishermen's livelihoods when export activities face difficulties.
A support fund worth 30 billion yen (more than 200 million USD) was established in the supplementary budget package for fiscal year 2021 to help seafood businesses affected by the discharge plan.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, the export turnover of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products of this country to China, Hong Kong and Macau (China) accounts for about 40% and if including South Korea and Taiwan (China), this figure is up to 50%. Therefore, with the above markets tightening the import of seafood originating from Japan, it may lead to a surplus of domestic goods and push wholesale prices down sharply.
Representatives of Japanese fishermen are calling on the government to help find other foreign markets to replace the struggling existing markets.
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