Chinese seafood imports from Japan have plummeted following Beijing’s ban on marine products from its neighbour in response to the discharge of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Imports fell by 67% in August from the same month a year earlier, to about ¥3bn ($20.2m), the public broadcaster NHK said, citing data from Chinese customs.
The decision by Beijing and Hong Kong to suspend all imports of Japanese marine products in late August has sparked a diplomatic row and a rise in anti-Japanese sentiment in China, with Japanese businesses and diplomatic offices receiving a huge volume of abusive calls.
The operator of the Fukushima plant, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) began pumping more than 1m tonnes of water into the sea on 24 August, drawing criticism from China and local fishing communities concerned about damage to the reputation of their catch.
The water is treated to remove most radioactive substances, but contains tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that cannot be easily separated from water.
Scientists have pointed out that China’s own nuclear power plants release wastewater with higher levels of tritium than that found in Fukushima’s discharge, and that the levels are all within boundaries not considered to be harmful to human health.
Tepco and government officials say the discharge – a process that will take at least 30 years – will not affect the marine environment or human health as the heavily diluted water contains levels of tritium that are well within safety levels, echoing the findings of a recent report by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The seafood ban did not go into effect until late last month, but the latest figures indicate the significant effect it is already having on exports. China imported Japanese seafood worth 149.02m yuan ($20.43m) in August, the data showed.
China, Japan’s biggest market for seafood, has condemned the discharge, with the customs agency saying it risks the “radioactive contamination of food safety”. China’s foreign ministry said it was an “extremely selfish and irresponsible act”.
Britain and the US have voiced support for the water release and the European Union commended the Japanese authorities for “providing regular updates on the Fukushima status in a timely and transparent manner”. South Korea’s government has said it accepted the science behind the IAEA’s report, despite safety concerns among a large section of the South Korean public.
The US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, drew an angry response from Beijing after he accused China of using “economic coercion” in imposing the seafood ban while its own boats continued to fish off Japan’s coast.
“Economic coercion is the most persistent and pernicious tool in their economic toolbox,” Emanuel said last week. “China is engaged right now in fishing in Japan’s economic waters while they are simultaneously engaged in the unilateral embargo on Japan’s fish.”
In response, China’s foreign ministry said Emanuel should stop encouraging Japan’s “irresponsible” behaviour.
Tokyo protested against the ban in a document it submitted this month to the World Trade Organization, describing it as “totally unacceptable”.
The ban is already having an impact on businesses in Japan, where there are reports of scallops and other seafood piling up in freezers at processing plants in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, where 64% of seafood exports went to China.
The Fukushima water became contaminated after it was used to cool three nuclear reactors that melted down after Fukushima Daiichi was struck by a powerful tsunami in March 2011.
