Japan announced its decision to release treated wastewater from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster into the sea last year, and has proceeded to do so since August 2023 despite outrage from many of its neighbouring countries.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Amidst all of this, Japan has also been increasing its efforts to get international markets to remove all import restrictions placed on food items coming from districts affected by the Fukushima incident, namely Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Chiba.
According to the latest report released by Japan’s Export and International Affairs Bureau in August 2024, to date 49 of all 55 countries and regions that introduced import measures in 2011 have lifted all such trade barriers, including the EU in 2023 and French Polynesia in May this year.
That said, there are still several markets standing firm in the decision to maintain these import barriers, particularly for seafood, such as Hong Kong.
“The Japanese government recently announced via different channels that the treated Fukushima nuclear wastewater has met international standards, and has requested Hong Kong to relax import controls on the import of Japanese seafood products,” the Hong Kong Environment and Ecology Bureau (EEB) stated via a formal statement on its social media.
“EEB has repeatedly pointed out that the impacts of this discharge will last 30 years, involving more than 1.3 million tons of nuclear sewage – The length of time and scale are unprecedented and if any mistakes are made, the negative impacts on marine ecology and food insecurity can be catastrophic.
“Therefore, Hong Kong will continue to take preventive measures to restrict the import of seafood and related products from the highest-risk places in Japan, as well as conduct testing on other related Japanese imports to ensure local food safety.”
The EEB also highlighted that Japan’s management of the discharge has not been a smooth one, and is cause for continued concern and caution.
“In the past year or so alone, there have been [at least] seven reported accidents that took place at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, with some employees needing hospitalisation and the nearby vicinity suffering from pollution,” said the bureau.
“[This means that] on average, there has been on accident happening every two months – this frequency is simply shocking!
“As such, Hong Kong will continue to monitor the situation and further analyse the impact of the nuclear wastewater discharge on food safety, so as to review and implement appropriate response measures from time to time.
“If the situation is found to worsen, we will not rule out the need to take further, more stringent measures to strengthen the protection of food safety in Hong Kong.”
Scientific justification
On the other hand, Japan has continued to insist that its actions are fully sanctioned by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and that it has a stringent control system in place to ensure food safety.
“The UN Joint FAO/IAEA Centre has stated that ‘Japan’s measures to monitor and respond to issues regarding radionuclide contamination of food are appropriate, and that the food supply chain is controlled effectively by the relevant authorities and that the public food supply is safe’,” the Export and International Affairs Bureau stated.
“The monitoring results of radionuclides in food exports to other markets have only found a few non-compliant cases, which were detected shortly after the accident, but more than a decade on, there have been no cases of maximum levels exceeded reported in markets maintaining import restrictions.
“There is no scientific justification for import restrictions and other measures on Japanese foods, and we believe that all remaining restrictions and other measures should be lifted.”
