Fukushima row: Hong Kong to ban seafood imports from 10 Japanese prefectures if water dumped into sea, environment minister says
- Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan issues warning after meeting Japanese consul-general Okada Kenichi
- Move follows announcement from mainland China last week to continue ban on imports from 10 Japanese prefectures
Hong Kong will follow mainland China in banning seafood imports from 10 Japanese prefectures, including Tokyo, if the country releases radioactive waste water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, the government has said.
Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan issued the warning on Wednesday after he met Japanese consul general Okada Kenichi in Hong Kong.
“Safeguarding food safety and public health is the responsibility of the Hong Kong government,” Tse said.
“As a preventive measure, once Japan discharges the waste water into the sea, the [city] government will immediately ban all aquatic products from 10 prefectures in Japan, including all kinds of seafood, sea salt and seaweed.”
Tse said the 10 prefectures were Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, all considered high-risk areas.