Japan's General Food Exports Down 41%...Direct Hit from China's Seafood Import Ban

Japan's food exports to China last month dropped by about half compared to the same month last year.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 20th, Japan's Ministry of Finance announced that Japan's food exports to China, including seafood, recorded 14.186 billion yen (approximately 130 billion KRW), down 41.2% from the same period last year.

According to Kyodo News, the Ministry of Finance attributed this to China, the largest export market for Japanese seafood, halting seafood imports.

The Chinese government imposed a complete ban on imports of Japanese seafood after Japan began discharging contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (referred to by the Japanese government as "treated water") into the ocean on the 24th of last month.

Prior to this, from early July, the Chinese government conducted comprehensive radiation inspections on Japanese seafood, causing delays in seafood customs clearance.

According to the preliminary trade statistics for August released by the Ministry of Finance on the same day, the trade deficit last month was 930.4 billion yen (approximately 8.4 trillion KRW). Although the deficit continued for the second consecutive month, the deficit amount decreased by 66.7% compared to the same month last year.

While rising raw material and energy prices have eased, leading to reduced imports, exports also declined due to sluggish semiconductor manufacturing equipment exports.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.