Japanese fishermen and aquaculture industry cry: the government is too stupid

At 10 a.m. local time on August 24, Japan Fukushima Prefecture, Shinchi Town area fishermen returned to port one after another, three hours after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to start the nuclear contaminated water discharged into the sea. According to Japan's Tokyo News 25, these hard-working, dark-skinned fishermen returned home with a full load, but they did not look happy and worried, "Today's fish were not affected by the nuclear contaminated water, but what will happen after tomorrow"?

"All the fishermen cried, the government is so stupid." So say fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture when it comes to nuclear-contaminated water being discharged into the sea.

After Japan started to drain the sea, China announced a total suspension of imports of Japanese aquatic products. Japan's NHK TV said, Japanese fishermen and aquatic practitioners heard the news is very desperate, feel "shocked", "will not be able to survive in the future"; On the other hand, Japan's Tokyo News noted that in the Chinese market, Japanese aquatic products are gradually replaced by Australia, Norway and China's local aquatic products.

In Fukushima, Japan, a fisherman sat blankly by the fishing port.

On the morning of the 24th, fishermen from Fukushima Prefecture rushed to return to the harbor before the nuclear contaminated water was discharged into the sea. Photo from Japanese media 。

Japan's Tokyo News said that for the way the Japanese handled the nuclear-contaminated water, fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture said, "No one can accept it, it's trampling on the hearts of the fishermen." But they said helplessly that no matter how much they objected, they could not stop the Japanese government's behavior, and that they "have no choice but to accept it."

Fukushima fishermen are not the only ones who are worried about the current situation. Japan's NHK TV reported on the 25th, after China announced a complete suspension of imports of Japanese aquatic products, generations of fishermen in other Japanese prefectures and cities to fish for a living, as well as rely on China's exports of aquatic industry practitioners, the same impact, said that "can not survive as a fisherman," "feel that the It's all in vain." ......

Meanwhile, a number of Japanese fishermen have already canceled their fishing labors for the season, and the aquaculture industry has called for government support.

Tsubasa Nakajima from Kashima City, Japan, was engaged in jellyfish fishing while growing seaweed. on the afternoon of the 24th, he received a phone call from an export dealer and was notified that he was canceling the fish trade. So he decided to cancel his jellyfish fishing work from the 25th.

"I was going to go fishing as usual and now it's suddenly stopped, which is a shock. Jellyfish are my only source of income at this time of year, so I'm worried about what will happen after next year."Tsubasa Nakajima stated.

"Shocked, worried about what will happen after next year"

For some time now, a seafood processing plant in Japan's Mie Prefecture has been working to expand its exports to China. Sho Nakazawa, head of the company's sales department, told NHK: "I was surprised by China's decision to suspend all imports of Japanese seafood products. The Chinese market is huge and we are developing products to meet Chinese demand, which means we were wasting our time before. I hope the government acts and resumes exports as soon as possible."

"If the import suspension is prolonged, I won't be able to survive as a scallop fisherman." Masahiro Ogawa, a fisherman from Hokkaido, Japan, said he has spent two years farming scallops and hopes the Japanese government will take effective measures as China is the main exporter of scallops from Hokkaido.

"I will not survive."

In Japan, fishermen a land of wailing and despair at the time, the Japanese Tokyo News found that in the Chinese market, Japanese aquatic products are gradually replaced by Australia, Norway and other places and China's local aquatic products.

The 17th Shanghai International Fisheries Fair is being held from August 23rd to 25th. According to the Japanese media, 4,000 companies from more than 20 countries and regions are exhibiting, but only a few of them are Japanese companies.

At the time of the news that Japan had initiated the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, the general manager of a Chinese sea cucumber processing company, who was attending the conference, lamented, "There are still 5 tons of stock in Japan to be shipped to China, but now we have to return the goods." The executive of another seafood processing company also said, "Now we will look at the situation first. If we can't clear customs, we will increase our local Chinese fish production."

On the other side of the expo, a tuna cutting demonstration by a Chinese importer drew a crowd. The Japanese media noted that the tuna used was from Australia, not Japan, and that Japanese tuna had previously been a popular product at the expo. In response to the news of China's total suspension of imports of Japanese aquatic products, the head of this importer said, "We have already found alternatives and are not affected at all."

Australian tuna and Norwegian salmon are popular at Shanghai International Fisheries Expo.

At 1300 hours local time on August 24, the Japanese Government unilaterally and forcibly initiated the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into the sea in defiance of the strong doubts and objections of the international community. Tokyo Electric Power Company announced at an interim press conference on the matter that today's discharge of nuclear contaminated water is expected to be 200 to 210 tons, and that daily discharges will be announced the following day. The first sea discharge will be about 460 tons per day for 17 days, for a total of about 7,800 cubic meters of nuclear contaminated water.

On August 22nd, the governments of Hong Kong (Special Topics) and Macao SAR announced that food imports in 10 prefectures and counties in Japan would be banned from August 24th.

The person in charge of Import and Export Food Safety Bureau of the General Administration of Customs said on the 24th that, in order to prevent Japanese food from being contaminated by radioactivity from being exported to China, and to protect the lives and health of the people, the General Administration of Customs has continued to carry out the assessment of the risk of radioactive contamination of food from Japan, and on the basis of strictly ensuring the safety of the imported food from Japan, the General Administration of Customs has taken strengthened regulatory measures.

At the same time, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries have announced that they will take strict testing measures for Japanese food imports.

Japanese media cited Japan Fisheries Agency data show that Japan's total exports of aquatic products in 2022 is about 387 billion yen (2.6 billion U.S. dollars), and in the past few years has been an upward trend. Japanese fish exports to China accounted for about 22.5% of the total, China is its largest exporter, of which scallops, skipjack tuna, tuna is the main export species to China. According to the latest data from the Imperial Data Bank of Japan, at least 700 Japanese companies exporting directly or indirectly to China will be affected by the new measures, and secondary and tertiary traders are also expected to be affected.

Japanese media pointed out that China occupies an absolute leading position in Japan's exports of aquatic products, many Japanese aquatic products and processing enterprises in the Chinese side of the release of control measures "into a panic": Fukuoka, a fishery company president frankly heard the news "brain blank", Hokkaido, an aquatic products processing company looked at the ice warehouse more than a dozen tons of frozen scallops have not yet been loaded fretting, the local fisheries associations, the staff even more helplessly said that "it came to be or came to be." ......

For a time, the relevant personnel in Japan's domestic fishery industry were "a land of wailing and despair", and the president of Japan's National Fishery Association (All Fishery Association) also quickly called Yasutoshi Nishimura, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan's cabinet, to complain: "The fishermen all over the country were very surprised."

Japan's Finance Minister Suzuki Junichi said on the 25th, (this measure) for Japan's domestic fishery products related practitioners caused a huge impact, should seriously think about what relief measures can be taken, and asked the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as soon as possible to study feasible countermeasures. Japan's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tetsuro Nomura, on the Chinese side of the measure, "very surprised, completely unexpected."

Not only exports have suffered a setback, but recently many Japanese fisheries and fish processing industry revealed that domestic consumers have also stopped buying aquatic products. In Miyagi Prefecture, operating aquatic products processing company Endo Hitoshi said, has been cooperating with its Shizuoka Prefecture, a number of supermarkets to suspend the purchase of aquatic products in the region, which just returned 50 boxes of scallops by customers in Hong Kong, his mental breakdown, "How can even the Japanese nationals are like this?"

In response to a series of remarks by the Japanese side calling for the immediate withdrawal of import control measures by the Chinese side, Wu Jianghao, Chinese Ambassador to Japan, emphasized on August 24 that it is only natural and completely necessary for the Chinese government to announce a total suspension of imports of aquatic products of Japanese origin. The responsibility for this situation lies entirely with the Japanese side, which should reflect on itself.