China lifts a nearly 2-year ban on seafood from Japan over Fukushima wastewater
A notice from the customs agency said the ban had been lifted Sunday and that imports from much of Japan would be resumed.
The ban, imposed in August 2023, was a major blow to Japan's scallop and sea cucumber exporters. China was the biggest overseas market for Japanese seafood, accounting for more than one-fifth of its exports. The decision to lift the ban coincides with efforts by China and Japan to improve ties as both face economic uncertainty because of the American tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. The nuclear plant at Fukushima was heavily damaged by a deadly tsunami that followed a huge offshore earthquake in 2011. Water still must be pumped in to cool the radioactive fuel. The water is then stored in what was an ever-growing complex of tanks on the property.
After years of debate, the utility won Japanese government permission to discharge the water gradually into the sea after treating it to remove most of the radioactive elements and diluting it with seawater. Japanese officials said the wastewater would be safer than international standards and have negligible environmental impact.
China disagreed and imposed a ban, saying the discharge would endanger the fishing industry and coastal communities on its east coast.
Over months of talks, Japan agreed to let China take samples of the water for testing. The sampling has not found any abnormalities, the customs agency notice said
China still opposes the wastewater discharge, but based on scientific evidence and analysis, it is allowing imports on a conditional basis from parts of Japan that meet China's standards, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.
A ban remains in place for seafood from 10 of Japan's 47 prefectures, including Fukushima and nearby ones.
Japanese seafood exporters will have to reapply for registration in China and all imports will have to include a health certificate, a certificate of compliance for radioactive substance testing and a certificate of origin, the Chinese customs agency said.
Shipments to China are expected to resume gradually, Japanese government spokesperson Kazuhiko Aoki told reporters in Tokyo on Monday, noting the re-registration requirement.
He said it was unclear how quickly scallop and sea cucumber exporters would return to China, because they had sought out other markets since the ban. But he predicted sales of sea cucumbers, a prized delicacy in China, would recover to a certain degree.
Aoki said the Japanese government would continue to press for the lifting of the export ban on the other 10 prefectures.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
26 minutes ago
U.S. Urges Japan to Beef Up Defense Capabilities
News from Japan Politics Jul 2, 2025 12:49 (JST) Washington, July 1 (Jiji Press)--U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio underscored the importance of Japan beefing up its defense capabilities at a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Takeshi Iwaya, in Washington on Tuesday. Iwaya replied that Japan "will carry out a drastic defense buildup on its own judgement," he told reporters after the meeting. According to the Japanese foreign minister, he and Rubio did not discuss a specific level of Japan's defense spending or its host-nation financial support for U.S. Forces Japan. Meanwhile, they reaffirmed their close cooperation for reinforcing the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. alliance and agreed to move ahead with preparatory work for a bilateral "two-plus-two" meeting of foreign and defense ministers. In view of moves by China and North Korea, Iwaya and Rubio supported the idea of Tokyo and Washington keeping making concrete efforts to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific while strengthening cooperative ties under multilateral frameworks with like-minded countries and other U.S. allies in the region, such as Australia, India, the Philippines and South Korea. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
The Mainichi
43 minutes ago
- The Mainichi
Royal train will end 156 years of service as King Charles III seeks to economize
LONDON (AP) -- The Royal Train will soon leave the station for the last time. King Charles III has accepted it's time to decommission the train, whose history dates back to Queen Victoria, because it costs too much to operate and would have needed a significant upgrade for more advanced rail systems, Buckingham Palace said Monday. "In moving forwards we must not be bound by the past,'' said James Chalmers, the palace official in charge of the king's financial affairs. "Just as so many parts of the royal household's work have modernized and adapted to reflect the world of today, so too the time has come to bid the fondest of farewells, as we seek to be disciplined and forward-looking in our allocation of funding.'' The train, actually a suite of nine railcars that can be hitched to commercial locomotives, will be decommissioned sometime before the current maintenance contract expires in 2027. That will bring to an end a tradition that dates back to 1869, when Queen Victoria commissioned a pair of special coaches to accommodate her travels. The decision was announced during the palace's annual briefing for reporters on the royal finances. The royal family will for the fourth consecutive year receive public funding of 86.3 million pounds ($118 million), including 34.5 million pounds to fund the remodeling of Buckingham Palace, in the 12 months through March 2026. This money comes from a mechanism known as the Sovereign Grant, which sets aside 12% of the net income from the Crown Estate to fund the official duties of the king and other members of the royal family. The Crown Estate is a portfolio of properties that are owned by the monarch during his reign. The properties are professionally managed and the king cannot dispose of the assets. The Crown Estate is one of the many relics of Britain's feudal past. King George III, who ruled during the American Revolution, surrendered management of the crown lands to Parliament in 1760 in return for a fixed payment from the Treasury. The royal finances remain a topic of public debate, with Charles pledging to slim down the monarchy and cut costs as he seeks to ensure the institution's survival. Buckingham Palace was quick to point out that while the Sovereign Grant has been unchanged for the past four years, inflation has eroded its value. If the grant had increased in line with inflation, it would have been about 106 million pounds this year, the palace said. The basic grant was supplemented with 21.5 million pounds ($29.5 million) of income generated by properties outside the Crown Estate. This income increased by 1.7 million pounds, driven by a record year for visitors to Buckingham Palace and special tours of the newly renovated East Wing. Craig Prescott, a constitutional law expert at Royal Holloway, University of London who focuses on the political role of the monarchy, said funding for the royals is relatively small when compared to the overall cost of the British state and it provides tangible benefits for the country. "It's something that puts Britain on the world stage in a way that few other things do,'' he said, noting that Queen Elizabeth II's funeral was the largest gathering of world leaders in history and the coronation was broadcast around the world. "It's one of those things that people think about when they think about Britain.'' Over the past year, Charles traveled to Australia and attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa -- his first as the organization's head. The royals also took center stage at the 80th anniversaries of D-Day and V-E Day, which marked the end of World War II in Europe, and welcomed the leaders of Japan and Qatar as they made state visits to the U.K. Overall, the royals made 1,900 public appearances in the U.K. and overseas. Some 93,000 guests attended 828 events at the royal palaces.
an hour ago
Buying US Steel: Nippon Steel's Purchase Becomes Tariff Bargaining Chip
Nippon Steel has successfully acquired US Steel following a year and a half of negotiations. While the path ahead of it still appears rocky, it has achieved a foothold in the promising US market, and hopes are high that it will lead to success for the new owner—even as the Japanese government hopes it will produce welcome results in broader tariff negotiations. No Choice but to Swallow the 'Golden Share' Nippon Steel's acquisition of US Steel followed a long, rocky road due to resistance from the US government under President Joe Biden and the United Steelworkers union. The end of the Biden administration, however, did give negotiators in Japan a glimmer of hope due to incoming President Donald Trump's desire to be seen as a deal maker and his willingness to change tack to achieve such deals. Therefore, the eventual consummation of the agreement under the Trump administration should not be too surprising. Despite acquiring full ownership of US Steel, Nippon Steel's control of the company will differ from other cases of 'wholly owned' subsidiaries. This is due to the signing of a 'national security agreement' with the Trump administration that granted the White House a noneconomic 'golden share' and effective veto power over decisions at shareholders' meetings affecting America's national and strategic interests. The United States itself has traditionally been opposed to the use of golden shares as they undermine shareholders' rights, but in this case accepting these provisions, among others, was essential for Nippon Steel to secure US government approval. In response to concerns about the NSA's provisions, Nippon Steel Chairman Hashimoto Eiji emphasized that the company would retain 'sufficient managerial freedom' and that management would not 'be constrained in pursuing anything we aim to.' Given the possibility that the presence of the golden share provision could affect share prices, Hashimoto had little choice but to make this assertion to ensure the deal made its way through his company's general shareholders meeting. Hashimoto Eiji, chairman and CEO of Nippon Steel, at a press conference on June 19, 2025, following the completion of the acquisition of US Steel. (© Jiji) Nevertheless, without knowing the full details of the agreement and its provisions, it is difficult to evaluate the full extent that the US government can intervene in the management of US Steel and the risks associated with such intervention. Certainly, Nippon Steel management's freedom of action is restricted insofar as it must invest $11 billion of capital in the United States by 2028. We also know that Nippon Steel cannot downsize US Steel, close American factories, or scale down their operations without permission. As US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick noted on social media, there is much more to the deal than the general details currently available to the public. Between purchase costs and promised capital investments, Nippon Steel will dedicate approximately ¥3.5 trillion (around $25 billion) to the acquisition of US Steel, raising questions over whether it can fully recover this investment through business operations. As a top-tier management team, Nippon Steel's executives must have carefully calculated the return on investment and conducted detailed analysis of growth potential based on conditions in the American market, US Steel's customer base, and its competition. It must have judged that the long-term opportunities in both the automotive and shipbuilding industries justified the outlays. Key Points of the Deal US Steel to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Steel Purchase price of ¥2 trillion ($14.1 billion) Completion of national security agreement with US government Noneconomic 'golden share' with veto rights granted to US government Promised future capital investment of ¥1.5 trillion ($11 billion) Compiled by based on various media reports. Nippon Steel persisted in its acquisition of US Steel despite the barriers placed in its way as it saw few other opportunities for growth on this side of the Pacific. Japan's own domestic market has peaked, and the company has been completely excluded from the Chinese market. On the other hand, production in the United States is relatively protected from cheap foreign steel by high tariffs (50%), making it an attractive market for corporate investment. From a management perspective, pursuing this deal was entirely rational. Even if US Steel fails to grow as anticipated, evaluating the outcome requires us to consider Nippon Steel's prospects should the deal not have been made. The nature of high-level business decision-making is the evaluation of the relative risks and opportunity costs of any given action. Addressing a US Lack of Access to Quality Steel Nippon Steel's acquisition of US Steel is likely to contribute to the revival of US production of steel and to downstream industries like automobiles and shipbuilding. The decreased competitiveness and quality of American steel is one factor in the long-term decline of both industries. The lack of high-quality premium steel sheets for automobiles and thick steel plates for shipbuilding at reasonable prices created a critical bottleneck that undermined domestic American industries dependent on steel. Therefore, Nippon Steel's promise of capital investment and the introduction of technology and engineering expertise into American industry could both improve product quality and enable production expansion in the United States. No matter how loudly President Trump insists on the revival of American manufacturing in automobile and shipbuilding industries, without sufficient quality and volume of domestically sourced steel, his ambitions would have remained ultimately unrealizable. Nippon Steel's acquisition is therefore also a significant development for the United States and President Trump's policies. The acquisition and likely contribution to the revival of American manufacturing are an essential part of the big picture surrounding ongoing US-Japan trade negotiations. From Nippon Steel's perspective, it must have been irritating to have the acquisition negotiations linked to US-Japan tariff negotiations. Indeed, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry actively sought to avoid this linkage. Nevertheless, the completion of the deal should give the Japanese side more confidence and a clear message. However, even if the Japanese side presents a grand vision of how Nippon Steel will revitalize the American steel industry and downstream manufacturing, it would be naive to expect the recent agreement to immediately lead to success in tariff negotiations. Commerce Secretary Lutnick is known as a hardliner, and talks are taking place in an environment where the US administrative apparatus has lost considerable numbers of staff and operational capacity. Both of these are factors making it more difficult for the Japanese government to communicate its point of view. We should for the time being expect no sudden changes in the tariff negotiations being led by Minister of Economic Revitalization Akazawa Ryōsei. Tokyo will need to keep working to gain the understanding of the Trump administration and its political appointees. An Evaporating Possibility of a General Agreement While Akazawa's American counterpart is nominally Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, it appears that Lutnick is the point man for the United States in tariff negotiations with Japan. During the fifth round of negotiations in early June, Akazawa met with Lutnick for two hours on the first day, and then the next day he met Bessent for 45 minutes, followed by Lutnick again for a further two hours. This indicates that the issue of automobile tariffs was the focus of intense discussion. Both Lutnick and Bessent look only to President Trump and are constantly mindful about his reaction. In mid-June, Akazawa appeared to have hopes for a general US-Japan agreement on tariffs ahead of the G7 summit in Canada. His comments at the time indicated that he had received a positive response from Lutnick about this possibility. However, Trump's response seems to have been quite different. In fact, Lutnick eventually did not accompany Trump to the G7 summit. High-stakes negotiations like this are never straightforward. Negotiations at the ministerial level are likely to accelerate in the future. Japan must stay on message and emphasize its contribution to American manufacturing, employment, and productivity through its investments in the domestic steel industry and, in turn, the American automotive industry. Ideally, Japan's contribution will be reflected in the reduction of tariffs on automobiles on Japanese makers, which appears to currently be the main battleground. The key message will be that Japan is partnering with the United States to help revive America's own manufacturing industry. (Originally published in Japanese on June 26, 2025, based on an interview by Mochida Jōji of Banner photo: Nippon Steel Corporation headquarters. © AFP/Jiji.)
