POSITIONS UNCHANGED
A spokesperson for Beijing’s foreign ministry said China still “resolutely opposes the Japanese side’s arbitrary discharge into the sea”.
“This position has not changed,” Mao Ning said at a regular press conference in the capital.
“The fact China and Japan have reached this consensus does not mean that the Chinese side will immediately resume imports of Japanese aquatic products in their entirety,” she added.
Kishida, for his part, said Tokyo also remained resolute.
“Japan’s position remains unchanged that the regulations should be scrapped immediately, and we will use this announcement to pave the way for the abolition of the regulations,” he said.
The head of Japan’s national association of fisheries groups said Friday that it took the announcement as “only the first step” towards a full resumption of imports.
“The Japanese government should remain fully aware of the plight of fishermen across the country who are affected by the total import suspension measures and continue to make every effort to lift the suspension as soon as possible,” Masanobu Sakamoto said.
BILATERAL RELATIONS
Beijing and Tokyo are major trade partners, and China imported more than US$500 million worth of seafood from Japan in 2022, according to customs data.
But the two countries are also perennial rivals in East Asia whose ties are freighted with the baggage of Japan’s imperial past and China’s more recent rise to superpower status.
The wastewater release has been a flashpoint in recent tensions, alongside squabbles over trade, territorial disputes and espionage allegations.
When a Chinese aircraft carrier this month sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time, Tokyo called the passage “totally unacceptable from the perspective of the security environment of Japan and the region”.
A Japanese boy was also stabbed to death in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen this week, an attack that Beijing called an “individual case” but which prompted Kishida to demand an explanation.
