Should Hong Kong end Japanese seafood import ban after Chinese test results?

A fresh debate is brewing in Hong Kong over whether to lift a ban on seafood imports from parts of Japan after Chinese tests of seawater samples near the snowballed Fukushima nuclear power plant showed no signs of negative impact on marine life.

Japanese restaurant operators in Hong Kong called for an immediate review of the ban, but a food safety expert and a legislator said the city should be cautious and protect public health by waiting until more test data was available.

Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said on Friday a review of the ban was long overdue.

“People travel to Japan to eat seafood there. That makes a mockery of the import ban,” he said.

The catering sector expressed hope after China’s Atomic Energy Authority announced on Thursday that its tests of seawater samples collected near the Fukushima plant found no negative impact on marine species.

Mainland China and Hong Kong imposed seafood import restrictions in August 2023 in response to Japan’s decision to start releasing into the ocean some of the 1.34 million tonnes of treated waste water from the plant, which was damaged in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.