U.S. envoy visits Fukushima to eat fish, criticize China’s seafood ban over wastewater launch

TOKYO — The U.S. ambassador to Japan visited a metropolis in Fukushima on Thursday and had a seafood lunch with the mayor, talked to fishermen and stocked up on native produce to point out they’re secure after the discharge of handled radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, backing Japan whereas criticizing China’s ban on Japanese seafood as political.

Ambassador Rahm Emanuel ate flounder and sea bass sashimi with Soma Mayor Hidekiyo Tachiya, talked with native fishermen, and visited a grocery retailer the place he sampled fruits and purchased peaches, figs, grapes, flounder, sea bass and different produce from Fukushima prefecture.

All of his purchases might be served when his youngsters go to him this weekend, Emanuel mentioned in a phone interview from his practice again to Tokyo. “We are going to all eat it. As a father, if I thought if there is a problem, I won’t serve it.”

The launch of the handled wastewater started final week and is predicted to proceed for many years. Japanese fishing teams and neighboring international locations oppose it, and China instantly banned all imports of Japanese seafood in response.

Emanuel praised Japan’s water launch plan as scientifically based mostly and totally clear, which he mentioned “stands in total contrast” to how China dealt with the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Chinese ban is political,” he mentioned. An finish to the ban “depends on whether China wants to be a good neighbor,” Emanuel mentioned.

Radioactive wastewater has amassed on the Fukushima plant since an enormous earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed cooling techniques and brought about meltdowns in three reactors. The 1.34 million tons of water is saved in about 1,000 tanks and continues to develop due to leaks and the usage of cooling water.

The authorities and the plant operator say discharging the water into the ocean is unavoidable as a result of the storage tanks will attain their capability early subsequent yr and area on the plant might be wanted for its decommissioning, which is predicted to take many years.

Earlier Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sampled seafood and talked to employees at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market to evaluate the impression of China’s ban on Japanese seafood.

One of the seafood enterprise operators instructed Kishida that gross sales of his scallops, that are largely exported to China, have dropped 90% because the begin of the wastewater discharge.

Kishida instructed reporters that he instructed officers to compile a package deal of assist measures for seafood exporters hit by China’s import ban, together with an enlargement of home consumption and new locations for Japanese seafood to exchange China.

“We will patiently and resolutely call on China to take actions based on scientific evidence,” Kishida mentioned.

The authorities has allotted 80 billion yen ($550 million) to assist fisheries and seafood processing and fight potential harm to the repute of Japanese merchandise. The authorities will do all the pieces to guard the fisheries business by using the fund and different measures, Kishida mentioned, indicating doable further monetary measures.

China stepped up testing of Japanese fisheries merchandise, inflicting lengthy delays at customs, even earlier than the beginning of the wastewater launch and the Chinese import ban. Japanese Fisheries Agency officers mentioned the measure has affected costs and gross sales of seafood from locations as far-off from Fukushima as Hokkaido.

All seawater and fish sampling knowledge because the launch have been method beneath set security limits for radioactivity, officers and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, say.

In Seoul on Thursday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a fish market and had seafood for his lunch as a part of efforts to ease public issues concerning the security of native fishery merchandise after Japan’s wastewater launch, as his nation strengthens a trilateral strategic partnership with Japan and the United States within the face of a rising Chinese regional menace.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno hinted on Wednesday of the opportunity of taking the case to the World Trade Organization, however Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi pressured the significance of dialogue.

The impression of China’s ban on Japanese seafood has spilled over to tourism. Transport and Tourism Minister Tetsuo Saito says cancellations of Chinese group excursions and inquiries about meals security in Japan have been on the rise.

Meanwhile, Kishida ordered Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries MInister Tetsuro Nomura to apologize after calling the handled radioactive water “contaminated,” the time period China makes use of.

Nomura used the time period when talking to reporters after assembly with Kishida and different ministers to debate fisheries assist measures. He apologized and retracted the comment, which Kishida known as “extremely regrettable.”

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Associated Press author Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

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