Fukushima Water Discharge and China's Ban on Japanese Seafood

Background

The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The large volumes of contaminated water generated on site since then have been processed by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which removes almost all radioactivity except tritium, and stored in tanks. In April 2021 the Japanese government decided to discharge the water into the sea and asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to review the plan; Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority approved it in May 2023.

On 4 July 2023 IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi presented a comprehensive report to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida concluding that Japan's approach and activities were consistent with relevant international safety standards and that the controlled, gradual discharges planned by TEPCO would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment; Japan would dilute the water before release to bring tritium below regulatory standards. When Japan announced on 22 August that the discharge would begin two days later, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong summoned Japanese Ambassador Hideo Tarumi to lodge solemn representations.

The Discharge and China's Import Suspension

On 24 August 2023 TEPCO began releasing the treated water from Fukushima Daiichi into the sea. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that day that China firmly opposed and strongly condemned Japan's unilateral start of the discharge of what Beijing calls "nuclear-contaminated water", arguing that Japan had not proved the legitimacy of the decision, the long-term reliability of the purification facility, the accuracy of its data, or that the discharge was harmless to the marine environment and human health. The same day the General Administration of Customs, citing the Food Safety Law and relevant WTO rules, suspended all imports of aquatic products, including edible aquatic animals, originating in Japan.

Mainland China was the largest overseas market for Japanese seafood, accounting for about 22.5% of exports. The Japanese government said the discharge was necessary for decommissioning work that would span decades, and Prime Minister Kishida announced a $141 million emergency fund for affected exporters. On 4 September Japan's foreign ministry, responding to China's 31 August notification to the World Trade Organization, called the ban "totally unacceptable", urged China to repeal it immediately and requested consultations under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

In Fukushima, fishing groups opposed the release. Fisherman Haruo Ono said local fish prices had only just recovered to their highest level since 2011; he and his colleagues were suing the government to stop the release. At the first auction after the discharge began, the price of larger flounder — Fukushima's signature "Joban-mono" — fell by more than 10%. Tetsu Nozaki, head of the prefectural fisheries federation, said the fishing community's worries would last as long as the discharge continued.

Consensus and Conditional Resumption

On 20 September 2024 China's foreign ministry published a consensus reached after several rounds of talks between the two countries' authorities: Japan welcomed a long-term international monitoring arrangement within the IAEA framework covering key stages of the discharge and would ensure the effective participation and independent sampling of stakeholder countries including China; China said that once these monitoring activities were under way it would begin adjusting its measures on the basis of scientific evidence and gradually resume imports of Japanese aquatic products meeting its standards.

On 29 June 2025 the General Administration of Customs announced that, with long-term international monitoring and China's independent sampling showing no abnormalities and the Japanese government having committed to ensure the safety of exports, imports of aquatic products from parts of Japan would conditionally resume with immediate effect, excluding ten prefectures including Fukushima, Miyagi and Tokyo; producers whose exports had been suspended had to reapply for registration in China.

Renewed Suspension

On 7 November 2025 Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told parliament that a Chinese attack on Taiwan that threatened Japan's survival was one of the cases that could trigger a Japanese military response, setting off a sharp downturn in relations. On 19 November Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that China had notified Japan it was suspending imports of Japanese seafood. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that day that Japan had undertaken to fulfil its regulatory responsibilities for seafood exports to China but had not provided the promised technical materials; she added that because Takaichi's erroneous remarks on Taiwan had provoked strong public indignation in China, there would be no market for Japanese seafood in China under current circumstances even if it were exported. Japanese Agriculture Minister Norikazu Suzuki said the same day that nearly 700 Japanese exporters had applied to re-register, of which only three had been approved.