Hongkongers’ trust in Japanese food could drop if waste water discharge plan goes ahead, catering sector says, as lawmakers call for tough response
- Member of Hong Kong’s catering industry says demand for Japanese food could drop by ‘50 per cent’ if country disposes of treated waste water from Fukushima plant
- Lawmakers call for tough response, says disposal plan could ‘have wide-ranging and irreversible impact on food chain’
Hongkongers could lose their appetite for Japanese food if the country discharged treated waste water from the Fukushima plant into the ocean, some of the city’s catering sector leaders have said, as lawmakers ramped up calls for a hardliner approach.
Japanese media outlets on Wednesday reported the scheme could go ahead as early as August, a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the plan “would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment”.
The treated water from the plant, damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, will be diluted with seawater and released through an underwater tunnel. It is expected to take up to 30 years to dispose of the 1.37 million tons of contaminated water.
The city’s Japanese consulate has defended the scheme, saying the waster water had been treated using an “Advanced Liquid Processing System” and stressed it would not harm agricultural, marine or other food products.
But Eric Chan, executive chef at omakase restaurant Tempura Taki, said demand for Japanese food at restaurants could drop by as much as 50 per cent once the initiative got under way.
