The blockade imposed a year ago, when the release of water from Fukushima began, has been lifted. After months of negotiations, an agreement was reached on additional monitoring to that already carried out by the IAEA (although no one can control the discharges from Chinese nuclear power plants). The turning point was announced after the fatal attack on a 10-year-old Japanese child in Shenzhen, a tragic confirmation of the dangers of nationalist propaganda against Tokyo.
Beijing (/Agencies) – Just over a year after the drastic embargo imposed in August 2023, the People’s Republic of China announced today that it will “gradually resume” the import of fishery products from Japan, shelving the widespread ban imposed when the release into the ocean of water used to cool the Fukushima nuclear power plant began, following the 2011 accident.
Tokyo had declared from the start, with data certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that these waters – properly treated – no longer contain levels of radioactivity harmful to health. Beijing strongly challenged this thesis in the media controlled by the government, fuelling on Chinese social networks what has become a strong anti-Japanese nationalist campaign. Japan responded by pointing out that – unlike what happens with Fukushima – there is no public data on the levels of radioactivity in the water discharged into the sea by Chinese nuclear power plants.
Now, after months of negotiations on a fundamental issue for bilateral economic relations between the two countries, the change of course has come. According to customs data, in fact, in 2022 – the last full year before the blockade – China imported more than $500 million worth of fishery products from Japan.
“China will begin to adjust relevant measures based on scientific evidence, and gradually resume imports of Japanese fishery products that meet regulatory requirements and standards,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. For its part, the statement continued, Japan has pledged to “comply with its obligations under international law, to do its utmost to avoid a negative impact on human health and the environment, and to conduct ongoing assessments of the impact on the marine environment and ecosystems.”
However, Mao Ning, a well-known spokesperson for Beijing’s Foreign Ministry, said China remains “resolutely opposed” to Japan’s release of Fukushima water, adding that “this position has not changed.”
At the same time as Beijing’s announcement, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Tokyo “has informed the Chinese side of its willingness to carry out further monitoring of treated waters, while the Chinese side has decided to gradually restore imports of Japanese fishery products that meet certain standards.”
By tragic coincidence, the announcement came the day after news broke of the death of a 10-year-old Japanese boy who was stabbed in Shenzhen in a new attack on Japanese citizens living in China, which occurred on the anniversary of the 1931 incident that marked the beginning of the invasion of Manchuria. Security cameras were installed in Shenzhen today around the Japanese school attended by the boy, after Tokyo called for increased security.
Local authorities have yet to reveal the motive of the 44-year-old man arrested for the murder, but yesterday Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong said the attack was an “isolated incident” committed by an individual with a criminal record.
Meanwhile, more than 50 Chinese residents gathered in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district last night to remember the Japanese child who was killed in the Shenzhen violence, laying flowers and observing a minute of silence. “We feel deep sadness for the innocent life that was taken from us, frustration and anger for not being able to do anything,” said the organizer, a 38-year-old man who spread the idea of the demonstration on social media.
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