TAIPEI: Taiwan lifted all restrictions on Japanese food imports on Friday in another show of support for Tokyo after reports that China will stop purchases over a row with the new prime minister.
The government in Taipei imposed a blanket ban on food imports from five Japanese regions in and around the site of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami, before easing some restrictions in 2022 and 2024.
Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that “Japanese food safety management measures return to normal,” with immediate effect.
“Since 2011, Taiwan has conducted border inspections on over 270,000 batches of Japanese food for radiation testing, with a failure rate of 0 percent,” it said in a statement.
“The risk assessment of additional radiation exposure risk from Japanese food is ‘negligible’,” it said, citing unspecified scientific data.
After Taiwan’s relaxation, only China, Hong Kong, Macau, Russia, and South Korea have specific import control measures for Japanese food products, the agency said.
Taiwan’s announcement comes after a row between Japan and China was triggered by a suggestion from new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi this month that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on the island.
China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.
Images of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te holding a plate of sushi were posted on social media on Thursday in a show of support for Tokyo.
Lai, an outspoken defender of Taiwan’s sovereignty and detested by China, has accused Beijing of “severely” affecting regional peace in the escalating spat.
China’s foreign ministry branded Lai’s posts a “stunt.”
Japan’s foreign ministry welcomed Taiwan’s decision to lift all restrictions, saying in a statement it would “encourage the reconstruction” of the areas hit by the 2011 quake and tsunami.
Taiwan lifts all restrictions on food imports from Japan
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Taiwan lifts all restrictions on food imports from Japan
- Taipei imposed a blanket ban on food imports from five Japanese regions before easing some restrictions in 2022 and 2024
Changes to US security strategy ‘largely consistent’ with Russia’s vision: Kremlin
- Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones”
MOSCOW: Russia has welcomed changes in the US National Security Strategy, saying the adjustments that marked a radical departure from Washington’s previous policy were “largely consistent” with Moscow’s vision.
Washington’s new National Security Strategy, published early Friday, took aim at allies in Europe, calling it over-regulated, lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.
The document stated that the United States would also prevent other powers from dominating but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.”
Commenting on the new US strategy, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones.”
“The adjustments we’re seeing, I would say, are largely consistent with our vision,” Peskov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday.
“President Trump is currently strong in terms of domestic political positions. And this gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept to suit his vision,” Peskov added.
The publication of the updated security strategy came as officials from Kyiv held talks in Florida with Trump’s envoys on the US-drafted plan to end the near four-year war in Ukraine.
Three days of talks produced no apparent breakthrough.
President Volodymyr Zelensky committed to further negotiations toward “real peace,” as Russia in the early hours of Saturday launched another series of drone and missile strikes at Ukraine.
Zelensky is due to meet with European leaders — French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — in London on Monday to take stock of the negotiations.
