Fukushima nuclear disaster and water release

Taiwan lifts Fukushima food ban as it looks to Japan for trade pact support

The island will ease restrictions to allow in produce from five Japanese prefectures more than a decade after the nuclear disaster

Decision will help smooth the way for Taiwan’s bid to join the CPTPP, Cabinet spokesman says

Reading Time:3 minutes

Taiwan is relaxing restrictions on Japanese food imports. Photo: EPA

Published: 6:00pm, 8 Feb 2022

Taiwan will largely lift a ban on some Japanese food imports imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster as it seeks closer cooperation with Tokyo.

Citing the need to join global trade pacts, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the island’s government announced on Tuesday it would conditionally lift the ban on food from Fukushima and four other Japanese prefectures later this month.

“For 11 years, Japan has imposed restrictive measures even more stringent than international standards to reduce the risk in relation to food, leading to more than 40 countries, including the 11 member states of the CPTPP to fully lift the ban on related Japanese food imports,” Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng said.

Lo said many European countries had also relaxed their bans or required radiation-free certificates for the imports.

“All over the world today, only Taiwan and China maintain the ban, and even Hong Kong and Macau have partially lifted the ban,” he said.

Lo said that after years of reviews and consultations with food experts and scientists as well as examination of international standards and practices, the island finally decided to conditionally remove the ban.

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