FIERCE BACKLASH
Japan in late August 2023 began discharging treated contaminated water from the Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean in an operation it insists is safe, a view backed by the UN atomic agency.
The release, however, generated a fierce backlash from China, which branded it “selfish” and banned all Japanese seafood imports.
China’s foreign ministry said in its statement on Friday that Tokyo welcomed the establishment of a “long-term international monitoring arrangement within the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) framework covering key stages in the discharge of the nuclear-contaminated water”.
“Both sides agree to continue to have constructive, science-based dialogue with a great sense of responsibility for the ecosystem, the environment, and human life and health,” it added.
Around the same time as the announcement, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo had “informed the Chinese side of its readiness to carry out additional monitoring of the … treated water, while the Chinese side has decided to … steadily restore imports of Japanese fishery products that meet certain standards”.
Despite the gradual resumption of seafood imports, a spokeswoman for Beijing’s foreign ministry said China still “resolutely opposes” Japan’s discharge of water from Fukushima.
“First of all, China resolutely opposes the Japanese side’s arbitrary discharge (of contaminated water) into the sea,” spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press conference, adding: “This position has not changed.”
China imported over US$500 million worth of seafood from Japan in 2022, according to customs data.
