After Tokyo said it will release water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear facility into the ocean, Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said Tuesday that he had ordered his administration to “immediately activate” import limits on specific Japanese foods.
“The Japanese government has decided on its own to discharge nuclear wastewater into the sea,” Hong Kong leader John Lee said in a Facebook post.
“I express my strong objections,” he added, calling the move “irresponsible” as it disregarded food safety and environmental risks.
He continued by saying that he had “instructed the Secretary for the Environment and Ecology and relevant departments to immediately activate the import control measures to protect food safety and public health in Hong Kong”.
Japan, on the other hand, maintains that it is safe to release the water that has accumulated at the damaged nuclear plant—enough to fill more than 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools—gradually into the sea. This position is supported by the UN Atomic Energy Agency.
According to the Japanese ministry of agriculture, Hong Kong is behind mainland China the country that imports the most Japanese food.
The city declared last month that, if Japan went ahead with its wastewater dump, it would “prohibit the import of aquatic products originating from 10 prefectures” in Japan.
The declaration came after a similar one from China’s General Administration of Customs, which had threatened to impose an all-encompassing ban on all foodstuffs from the regions.
Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano, and Saitama were the 10 prefectures mentioned.
The diplomatic representatives of Japan in Hong Kong have recently met with Lee and other top government officials to express their opposition to the import restrictions.
