China banned seafood from Japan. Some tourists are eating it in Tokyo
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- Sulaiman Umar
- 01 Sep, 2023
- 504
When Japan began to release treated water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the ocean last week, China and Hong Kong were quick to ban seafood from Japan.
Even though tests of seawater from near Fukushima Prefecture conducted since the release have shown that tritium — the radioactive material that remains after the treatment process — is under detectable levels, opposition in neighboring countries, including China and South Korea, remains strong.
Yet Chinese and Hong Kong tourists visiting Japan largely seem unfazed about eating sushi and seafood in Japan — unlike their respective governments — following the water discharge, with many local seafood restaurants seeing little impact so far.
For many visitors, one of the things that they look forward to on their trip is the culinary experience in Japan, especially seafood.
“(One thing) I’m excited to have is seafood, like sushi,” said Shi, a 55-year-old tourist from Beijing who preferred not to give his full name.
Shi, who was speaking the day the water was released, said that he was aware of the controversy surrounding the release of the treated water but was not too concerned about it, saying that it would not stop him from eating seafood during his stay.
“Because the impact has not been seen yet,” said Shi. “The water just started to flow into the ocean, so we do not know what will happen.”
He speculated that, ultimately, Japanese people should probably be more worried about it since they are the ones most affected by the release. “Japanese people will think (about) the impact more than others because they are living here.”
A pair of college students in their early 20s traveling to Tokyo together also said that although they were slightly worried after hearing about the release, it did not change their minds about eating seafood in Japan.
“It’s nothing,” said Wang Liwei.
Wang and his friend Yu Zijie, who hail from the same town in Zhejiang province, both said they were excited about food in Japan, including sushi.
Some tourists expressed more concern about the water but were conflicted, since they had traveled all the way to Japan wanting to enjoy its delicacies.
Rabee’a and Winnie, travelers in their early 20s from Hong Kong, said that the news would not stop them from eating seafood during their stay, but they would eat “less than normal.” Both of them declined to give their full names.
Riku, a 40-year-old woman traveling from Shanghai with her mother who also declined to give her full name, also said she was unsure what to do yet, since the Fukushima water release began in the middle of her trip.
“I was really excited (to have seafood),” Riku said. “But I will have to reconsider it. I am a little scared.”
Other tourists, meanwhile, were more worried, saying they want to be on the safe side and stay away from seafood altogether.
A couple in their 40s — Ryan Shi and Qi Zhang, who were enjoying an evening with their son at Sensoji Temple in Tokyo’s Asakusa district — said that they were completely staying away from having seafood.
“(We had) already booked omakase (chef’s special at a sushi restaurant),” Qi said. “But we just canceled it.”
The family canceled their plans upon hearing the news of the release and said they imagined other tourists were doing the same.
But in interviews conducted several days after the water release, restaurant owners in the Tsukiji and Toyosu fish market districts said the impact of the release appeared limited so far, with many saying that there hadn’t been much change in the flow of customers.
Satoshi Ichikawa, the store manager of Sushi Shou in Toyosu, said that he hasn’t noticed an increase in the number of Chinese customers, even after Beijing’s lifting of a ban on group tours to Japan on Aug. 10.
“There haven't been that many customers from mainland China this year,” Ichikawa said. “I thought there might be an increase with the ban on group tours having been lifted recently, but I feel like not that many Chinese tourists have come.”
That said, he felt that the impact of the Fukushima water release has not been that notable. Other shop owners agreed that there has been no impact at all.
“We haven’t been affected so far,” said Kazuo Yaguchi, the owner of Marutoyo, a seafood onigiri (rice ball) stand in Tsukiji who noted that the buzz around the Fukushima water was most likely to be at its peak just at the beginning, and therefore he is not too concerned about its impact on his business.
“It was the same when the (March 2011) earthquake happened — people fuss over it in the beginning but they calm down after a while,” Yaguchi said.
Some restaurants and local municipal offices in Japan have reported receiving harassing calls originating from China. Some of the restaurant workers interviewed admitted they have also received such calls since the water's release.
“We get a lot of weird harassing calls in Chinese,” said Katsuji Takeda, the manager of Ichiba Sushi in Toyosu. “It started (last) Friday. On bad days we get about 10 calls during our opening hours.”
Although other stores in Toyosu said that they did not receive such calls, some stores in Tsukiji also reported receiving them.
Miho Kanno of seafood bowl restaurant Tsukiji Kanno said that since last week the restaurant has been receiving one or two phone calls a day criticizing Japan’s discharge of the treated water. However, she added that there has been very little impact besides that, and that the store continues to get a lot of foreign tourists, including some from China.
“There's not that much impact so far, not to the extent that other people make it out to be,” said Kanno. “Because TV coverage is making a big fuss of it, that might affect the situation more than necessary, which I am not happy about.”
The government hopes tourists will continue eating seafood. Taro Kono, state minister of consumer affairs, told reporters on Aug. 25 of his hope that Chinese tourists would continue eating Japanese fish during their stay.
“There are a lot of tourists from China, so they may eat sushi and sashimi and return home saying ‘Japanese seafood was delicious,’” Kono said, adding that the Consumer Affairs Agency plans to promote the safety of Japanese seafood using videos in Chinese.
Culled from Japan Times
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