US envoy to Japan derides China for its stand on Fukushima waste water release
- Rahm Emanuel accuses Beijing, which has banned import of Japanese fish because of safety concerns, of a double standard
- ‘China is fishing in Japan’s waters … yet refusing to import the same fish that Japan catches,’ he says
Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, accused Beijing on Friday of a double standard in its response to the release of Fukushima radioactive waste water into the Pacific Ocean.
“China is fishing in Japan’s waters, based on the public health of Fukushima water, yet refusing to import the same fish that Japan catches in their own,” said Emanuel, who was photographed eating fresh fish during a visit to Fukushima in August.
Emanuel was speaking at an event – briefly disrupted by climate activists – on US-Japan relations organised by Asia Society in New York.
In 2011, Japan narrowly averted catastrophe after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was struck by an earthquake and tsunami. In August, Tokyo began releasing what it said was treated and safe radioactive water from the plant, which remains shut down, into the ocean.
At the time, Beijing protested against the waste water release and banned all seafood imports from Japan over “safety concerns”. Public demonstrations against the release have occurred in the US and South Korea, and some Pacific Island nations also expressed concerns.