EU resumes Japanese food imports banned after Fukushima disaster

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The EU will lift remaining controls on Japanese food imports imposed after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, in a boost for Tokyo as it faces international pressure over other measures related to the nuclear plant.

Brussels has gradually removed controls on food items coming from regions affected by the nuclear explosion. Products including wild mushrooms, some fish and wild edible plants have remained subject to pre-export testing.

“The decision by the EU to lift import restrictions on Japanese food will provide strong support to the reconstruction of the affected area,” said Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida during a press conference after an EU-Japan summit in Brussels.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the decision was “based on science, based on the proof of evidence and based on the assessment of the International Atomic Energy Agency”.

Controls on food items were imposed shortly after a 2011 tsunami knocked out the cooling systems of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daichi plant, triggering a meltdown.

Water used to cool the reactors became contaminated with radioactive nuclides. It has since been filtered to remove most harmful material but there is no practical way to filter out tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

Last week, the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, approved Japan’s plans to release radioactive water gradually into the Pacific, a plan that has been condemned by China and South Korea and opposed by local fisherfolk. Hong Kong has warned it will ban some Japanese sea products if Japan discharges the water.

Kishida said the UN agency had concluded that releasing the water was “consistent with international standards” and “negligible on people and the environment”.

The EU called on Japan to monitor fish, fish products and seaweed close to the release site for contaminated cooling water.

The bloc has also agreed greater access for European agricultural products to Japanese markets. “We are working to facilitate access of agri-products, beef, fruit and vegetables in particular, to Japan,” said Charles Michel, the president of the European Council.

Talks in Brussels also focused on security concerns, with the EU and Japan launching a “strategic dialogue” at foreign ministerial level to co-ordinate on security threats, and discussing means for both partners to diversify supply chains from China, in industries such as semiconductors and critical raw materials.

Before the summit, Japanese officials said that Russia’s war in Ukraine “can be east Asia tomorrow”, after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan on Wednesday and as China continued its “military build-up in an opaque manner”.

“We know that Indo-Pacific security and European security are indivisible,” said von der Leyen.