Japan is trying to dispel concerns about treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant and counter uproar in China, which banned Japanese seafood imports.
“Publicly consuming food to prove its safety is a piece of political theater with a long history,” said Makoto Takahashi, an assistant professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam who has extensively researched the legacy of the Fukushima disaster.He noted that treated water containing trace amounts of tritium is routinely released from nuclear power plants around the world, but added that Japan’s “water plan does not need to be dangerous to do real economic harm.
Takahashi said Fukushima’s agricultural sector was hit hard by consumers avoiding its produce in the early years after the 2011 disaster. While Japan has since tightened food safety standards and engaged in large-scale communication campaigns to rebuild confidence in goods from Fukushima, fishing groups fear the wastewater release “threatens to reverse the progress that has been made,” he said.
As the government urges Japanese to help fight back against reputational damage, businesses in Fukushima have reported a surge in support from across the country. Under Japan’s hometown tax program — where taxpayers have the option to contribute a portion of their taxes to a chosen city in exchange for goods — donations to the city of Iwaki in Fukushima in the week after the release were nearly seven times higher than the week before the discharge, according to local authorities.“We hope to turn this support into strength to move forward dispelling rumors,” Iwaki Mayor Hiroyuki Uchida told a news conference, expressing his gratitude.
Outside of Fukushima, some vendors have also made efforts to sell fish specifically from the region. At 21 locations in different regions around Tokyo, Japanese supermarket chain Aeon set up sections specifically for fish coming from Fukushima, announcing after the release that it would “continue to support seafood from Fukushima.
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