Japan says China will resume Japanese seafood imports it halted over
Fukushima water discharge
[May 30, 2025] By
MARI YAMAGUCHI
TOKYO (AP) — China will resume Japanese seafood imports it banned in
2023 over worries about Japan's discharge slightly radioactive
wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into
the sea, a Japanese official said Friday.
China said their talks this week made “substantial progress” but did not
confirm an agreement with Japan on the issue that has been a significant
political and diplomatic point of tension.
Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the agreement was reached
after Japanese and Chinese officials met in Beijing and the imports will
resume once paperwork is complete.
”Seafood is an important export item for Japan and a resumption of its
export to China is a major milestone," Koizumi said.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya also welcomed the move, saying, “It will
be a big first step that would help Japan and China to tackle a number
of remaining issues between the two countries," such as disputes over
territory, trade and wartime history.
But officials said China's ban on farm and fisheries products from 10
Japanese prefectures including Fukushima is still in place and that they
will keep pushing toward their lifting.
China's General Administration of Customs, in a statement issued Friday,
said the two sides on Wednesday held "a new round of technical exchanges
on the safety issues of Japanese aquatic products ... and achieved
substantial progress” but did not mention an agreement.

How the disagreement over seafood imports began
China blocked imports of Japanese seafood because it said the release of
the treated and diluted but still slightly radioactive wastewater would
endanger the fishing industry and coastal communities in eastern China.
Japanese officials have said the wastewater will be safer than
international standards and its environmental impact will be negligible.
They say the wastewater must be released to make room for the nuclear
plant’s decommissioning and to prevent accidental leaks.
Tokyo and Beijing since March held three rounds of talks on the issue
before reaching the agreement on Wednesday on the “technical
requirements” necessary for Japanese seafood exports to China to
restart, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It did not say
how long it may take before the actual resumption.
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Visitors check seafood sold at the seafood market "Lalamew" near the
Onahama fish port in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, on Oct. 19,
2023 in Iwaki, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
 Mainland China used to be the
biggest overseas market for Japanese seafood, accounting for more
than one-fifth of its seafood exports, followed by Hong Kong. The
ban became a major blow to the fisheries industry, though the impact
on overall trade was limited because seafood exports are a fraction
of Japan’s total exports.
Japan’s government set up an emergency relief fund for Japanese
exporters, especially scallop growers, and has sought alternative
overseas markets.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which operates the Fukushima
Daiichi plant, has said it would compensate Japanese business owners
appropriately for damages from export bans.
Why the wastewater is being treated and released into the sea
The nuclear plant had meltdowns in three reactors after being
heavily damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck
northeastern Japan. Water used to cool the reactor cores has been
accumulating ever since, and officials say the massive stockpile is
hampering the cleanup of the site.
The wastewater was treated and heavily diluted with seawater to
reduce the radioactivity as much as possible before Japan began
releasing it into the sea in August 2023.
Last September, then-Prime Minster Fumio Kishida said the two sides
reached “a certain level of mutual understanding” that China would
start working toward easing the import ban and join the
International Atomic Energy Agency's expanded monitoring of
wastewater discharges.
People inside and outside Japan protested the initial wastewater
release. Japanese fishing groups said they feared it would further
damage the reputation of their seafood. Groups in China and South
Korea also raised concerns.
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