China's Fukushima-linked ban appears to widen to reel in Japan's prized ornamental carp as traders bemoan 'serious damage'
Japan's prized nishikigoi carp appears to be the latest casualty of a widening ban on the country's marine products by China in response to the release of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Chinese authorities have failed to renew permits for exports and quarantine of the ornamental koi at the end of October despite Japanese exporters submitting the required paperwork well in advance, the All Japan Nishikigoi Promotion Association said.
"We have not been informed about why the paperwork has not been approved this time," said Tsutomu Senuma, a spokesman for the association.
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"This is a very difficult situation for many of our members as China is an important export market for them," he said. "We are asking China to approve the permits and have requested more information through the Japanese government."
The association's members feel the problems are not insurmountable and are hoping that sales of the nishikigoi carp to the Chinese market can resume soon, Senuma said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference in Tokyo on November 9 that Japan "will continue to urge the Chinese authorities" to approve all the procedures required to resume exports of the ornamental koi from Japan.
The same day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reiterated Beijing's strong opposition to the release of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific, describing the discharged water as "nuclear-contaminated".
This was despite Japan's insistence that the water had been treated to remove virtually all radionuclides before it was released and that any remaining contaminants were well below internationally accepted limits.
China had made no official statement on halting imports of Japanese koi, Matsuno said.
The Fukushima plant began its third release of treated water into the sea earlier this month after two earlier rounds in August and October and will continue to do so for decades.
Beijing has implemented an almost blanket ban on imports of fish and other maritime products from Japan after the first round in August, with Japanese exports in September plummeting nearly 91 per cent from one year earlier to a mere 800 million yen (US$5.3 million). But nishikigoi carp, pearls and products made from coral were unaffected by the ban in September.
Japanese carp have long been sought-after by collectors around the world, with some specimens with particularly attractive markings selling for millions of yen each. According to government statistics, Japanese companies exported 6.3 billion yen (US$41.5 million) worth of ornamental fish in 2022, double the figure of 10 years previously, with China being the biggest market, accounting for around 19 per cent of all exports.
Kosuke Yoshida, of Yoshida Fish Farms in the Tokyo suburb of Hachoji, said his company had been shifting the focus of its export operations to collectors in Europe and Southeast Asia in recent years, and he was "happy" to be avoiding the new problem with China.
"Japanese breeders and dealers have high-quality fish to sell to China, but I guessed it was going to become more difficult after the Fukushima water began to be released," he said. "I think it is only the Chinese government that is complaining about the water, but it is causing serious damage to others in the koi industry here."
Kenji Tani, founder of the Tani Fish Farm in Chiba Prefecture, west of Tokyo, said he has been shipping koi to China via Hong Kong for more than 30 years, but that trade had now stopped. His company still regularly sends koi to Hong Kong, but he fears the market may soon be cut off for exports as well.
"Yes, I'm worried," he admitted. "The Hong Kong market has already been getting smaller for some years now and it is becoming more and more difficult there.
"The Chinese are talking about the water from Fukushima, but there are other things going on there as well," he said. "Chinese collectors no longer want to pay large amounts to Japanese breeders for fish as they want to breed their own stock.
"Fukushima is just one excuse, but they want to do it by themselves now - and that is the bigger problem for the Japanese koi industry."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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