Hong Kong rejects call from Japan to drop ban on seafood imports from 10 prefectures

Japanese fisheries minister Tetsushi Sakamoto says city’s ban imposed over discharge of waste water from nuclear plant has no scientific basis

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Seafood for sale at Sogo in Causeway Bay. In 2022, mainland China and Hong Kong were the largest and second-largest markets for Japanese seafood. Photo: Jelly Tse

Published: 11:21pm, 17 Aug 2024Updated: 11:34pm, 17 Aug 2024

Hong Kong has remained firm on the need for a ban on Japanese seafood after the country’s fisheries minister urged the city to drop restrictions imposed over the discharge of treated waste water from the mothballed Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Tetsushi Sakamoto, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, called for an end to the ban as he visited the city on Friday and promoted his country’s products at the annual Food Expo.

He met Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing, saying afterwards he had called for the ban to be dropped as it had no scientific basis, Japanese media reported.

But in a government statement issued on Saturday evening, Cheuk said he had expressed concerns during the meeting over the continued release of the treated waste water into the ocean, noting the “spillover effects” of the discharge were unprecedented.

The Japanese side had so far been unable to guarantee that the filtering and dilution systems would remain effective in the long run, he added.

“The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and society are highly concerned about food safety and public health. The government must act prudently and uphold strict gatekeeping,” the statement said.