Fish and shrimp seen at a seafood market in Shanghai, China, on August 25, 2023. Reuters/Aly Song Acquisition of license rights
TOKYO, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday after visiting Tokyo’s biggest fish market that he would finalize measures to support fisheries hit by China’s embargo on Japanese seafood. Ta.
The government will use approximately tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) of additional funds from this fiscal year’s government budget reserves to fund the measures, Thursday Kei reported.
After visiting the Toyosu Market on Thursday, Mr. Kishida told reporters, “Based on the various opinions I heard from the seafood industry today, I would like to compile measures,” and said he would like to support seafood companies in developing new sales channels. He added that he also added requests including consultation. with China.
Last Thursday, Japan began releasing radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, prompting China, Japan’s largest trading partner, to impose a total ban on Japanese seafood. urged.
The Tokyo government has set up two funds worth 80 billion yen ($548 million) to help develop new sales channels and freeze surplus fish until demand recovers and it can be sold. established. Officials had previously ruled out further fiscal measures for the industry.
In 2022, more than 700 Japanese companies will export approximately $600 million worth of seafood to China, making China Japan’s largest export market. Hong Kong then announced its own ban on seafood imports from 10 regions of Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Fisheries Minister Tetsuro Nomura said last Friday that Japan would take steps to diversify Japan’s fish exports to products dependent on China, such as scallops. China accounted for more than half of Japan’s scallop exports in 2022.
Some Japanese officials have also suggested diplomatic action to urge China to lift the ban, but the Japanese government insists it is not based on scientific evidence, such as filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(1 dollar = 146.0200 yen)
Report by Sakura Murakami and Kantaro Komiya. Edited by Stephen Coates and Lincoln Feast.
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