TOKYO: China will suspend Japanese seafood imports, media in Tokyo reported Wednesday as a row sparked by comments about Taiwan deepens, although neither government confirmed the move.
The uneasy neighbors’ most serious spat since 2012 was triggered by new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting on November 7 that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has been furious, summoning Tokyo’s ambassador and advising its citizens against travel to Japan.
The release of at least two Japanese movies will also be postponed in China, according to state media.
Reporting the suspension of seafood imports, Japanese media, including public broadcaster NHK, cited unnamed government sources.
China explained the move as necessary to monitor treated wastewater being released from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, NHK said.
China had only recently resumed purchasing some marine products from Japan following an earlier ban imposed after the Fukushima operation began in 2023.
The UN atomic agency said the release of the equivalent of 540 Olympic pools’ worth of cooling water collected since a tsunami crippled the facility in 2011 was safe.
But Beijing has accused Japan of treating the Pacific as a “sewer.”
Beijing’s foreign ministry did not confirm the latest reported suspension when asked on Wednesday.
Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news conference: “Under the current circumstances, even if Japanese seafood were exported to China, there would not be a market.”
Japanese government spokesman Minaru Kihara also said there had been “no notifications from the Chinese side on this.”
“It is important to follow through on the understanding shared between Japan and China in September last year (about seafood),” Kihara told reporters.
In 2023, seafood shipments to mainland China accounted for 15.6 percent of a total of 390 billion yen ($2.5 billion), down from 22.5 percent in 2022.
Hong Kong accounted for 26.1 percent, and the United States accounted for 15.7 percent in 2023.
- ‘Strong protest’ -
Key trading partners, China and Japan have seen ties frayed by territorial rivalries and military spending in recent years.
China is the biggest source of tourists to Japan, with almost 7.5 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025.
One analyst estimated that Chinese travelers have canceled around half a million air tickets in recent days.
“Recently, 90 percent of our customers (going to Japan) have asked for refunds,” Wu Weiguo, 48, a manager at a Shanghai travel agency, told AFP.
“I think relations will be able to improve, as long as Japan can tone down their rhetoric... After all, there are a lot of Chinese people currently in Japan, including my cousin, who is married to someone there,” said his colleague Zhou Pei, 47.
Japan on Monday urged its citizens in China to be careful of their surroundings and to avoid big crowds.
Beijing on Tuesday vowed to “protect the safety” of foreigners in China, but said it had again lodged a “strong protest” with Tokyo over Takaichi’s comments.
Seeking to defuse the row, the top official in Japan’s foreign ministry for Asia-Pacific affairs, Masaaki Kanai, held talks Tuesday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong.
“During the consultations, China once again lodged a strong protest with Japan” over “Takaichi’s erroneous remarks,” said Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
“Takaichi’s fallacies seriously violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations,” Mao said, adding the premier’s comments “fundamentally damage the political foundation of China-Japan relations.”
