Calls to End Japanese Seafood Bans in HK

When will Hong Kong finally lift Japanese seafood bans?

Since August 2023, Hong Kong and China have imposed restrictions on Japanese seafood after Tokyo decided to start releasing 1.34 million tonnes of treated waste water that was used to cool down the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was damaged in a 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

While China has a blanket ban, Hong Kong does not allow seafood from Tokyo, and the prefectures of Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama.

Daily testing has not found any abnormalities

Hong Kong is the second-largest market for Japanese seafood, behind China, which in 2022 imported US$558.9 million, and Hong Kong (US$484 million).

But despite testing seafood daily, the Hong Kong authorities have not found any abnormalities in the concentration of hazardous elements, such as tritium, caesium-137 and strontium-90.

The seafood bans and the weak yen prompted lots of sushi fans to fly from Hong Kong to Japan to eat their favourite fish -- even in the above mentioned places that were banned.

It also caused several Japanese restaurants in Hong Kong to shut down, unable to import authentic ingredients vital to their business.

Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said 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.

Hongkongers have gone to Japan to eat seafood

He urged the government to review the ban and resume imports as early as the first quarter of this year.

But government food safety adviser Dr Vicki Fong Lai-ying remained cautious.

"It is fine to keep strict monitoring of safety for better protection of public health," she said.

"There is a high risk that the contaminated and polluted water could be passed to the ocean, which may in turn affect the food chain."

Lawmaker Steven Ho Chun-yin, who is deputy chairman of the Legislative Council's food safety and environmental hygiene panel, agreed, saying the government should not relax the ban until "there is reasonably sufficient reliable information made available that the seafood there is safe to consume".

How much more data is needed? Surely by now -- 14 years later -- there would be evidence of radiation affecting seafood by now. And besides, Japan's own Food Safety Commission has even more stringent radiation standards than Hong Kong.

What gives?