TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Monday a 20.7 billion yen ($141 million) emergency fund to help exporters hit by China’s ban on Japanese seafood over the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The discharge of the wastewater into the ocean began Aug. 24 and is expected to continue for decades. Japanese fishing associations and groups in neighboring countries have strongly opposed the release.
In addition to China’s ban on all Japanese seafood imports, Hong Kong has banned Japanese seafood from Fukushima and nine other prefectures.
Chinese trade restrictions have affected Japanese seafood exporters since even before the release began, with shipments held up at Chinese customs for weeks.
Prices of scallops, sea cucumbers and other seafood popular in China have plunged. The ban has affected prices and sales of seafood from places as far away from Fukushima as the northern island of Hokkaido, home to many scallop growers.
Kishida said the emergency fund is in addition to 80 billion yen ($547 million) that the government previously allocated to support fisheries and seafood processing and combat damage to the reputation of Japanese products.
“We will protect the Japanese fisheries industry at all costs,” Kishida said, asking people to help out by serving more seafood at dinner tables and other ways.
The money will be used to find new markets for Japanese seafood to replace China and fund government purchases of seafood for temporary freezing and storage. The government will also seek to expand domestic seafood consumption.
Officials said they plan to cultivate new export destinations in Taiwan, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and some southeast Asian countries — such as Malaysia and Singapore.
Kishida talked with workers at a fish market last Friday to assess the impact of China’s ban and pledged to protect Japan’s seafood industry. / AP