US ambassador to Japan visits Fukushima, expects US support in China seafood ban spat
- ‘The economic coercion … the robocalls of harassment and disinformation … comes right out of China’s playbook’, Rahm Emanuel said
- Japan’s releasing of water from the Fukushima plant into the sea prompted China, its biggest trade partner, to ban all Japanese aquatic products
United States ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel visited Fukushima on Thursday and told reporters he expected the US to support Japan should China’s ban on Japanese seafood develop into a spat at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“If Japan decides to take that effort, the United States will stand by [it] not just because they’re an ally, but because there’s legitimacy to the case,” he said, although he added he cannot prejudge what would happen and such support would ultimately be up to the relevant US government agencies.
Japan started releasing treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean last Thursday, prompting China, Japan’s biggest trade partner, to impose a blanket ban on Japanese aquatic products.
Japan has since sought an immediate end to the ban and threatened to resolve the matter through the WTO framework. Japan has also complained of being inundated with harassment calls since the water release.
“The economic coercion against Japan, the robocalls of harassment and disinformation both here in Japan and around comes right out of China’s playbook. This is all politics,” Emanuel said.
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Japan’s prime minister tucks into Fukushima seafood, vowing to overturn Chinese import ban
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he would compile measures to help the fishing industry hit by China’s ban on Japanese seafood, after visiting Tokyo’s biggest fish market on Thursday.
