China partly lifts ban on Japanese seafood

BEIJING: China has lifted a ban on seafood imports from most regions of Japan, partially mending a years-long dispute over Tokyo's handling of nuclear wastewater.

China and Japan are key trading partners, but increased friction over territorial rivalries and military spending has frayed ties in recent years.

Japan's brutal occupation of parts of China before and during World War II remains a sore point, with Beijing accusing Tokyo of failing to atone for its past.

Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in 2023. The move was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the plant operator TEPCO says all radioactive elements have been filtered out except for tritium, levels of which are within safe limits.

But it drew sharp criticism from Beijing, which banned imports of Japanese seafood as a result. Russia later followed suit.

Samples from long-term monitoring of nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima had "not shown abnormalities", China's General Administration of Customs said in a statement Sunday.