Japan-China feud deepens? Beijing planning to cease Tokyo’s seafood imports – here’s why

The latest dispute between Japan and China has now entered the trade sphere, with Tokyo media reporting that Beijing is planning to halt Japanese seafood imports. However the reports, which emerged on Wednesday and were widely carried by outlets, still remain unconfirmed by governments of both the countries as the diplomatic row deepens.Reports from Tokyo suggest that the seafood suspension is being linked by China to its monitoring of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant. NHK, which carried the news, said that China called the step as part of its assessment of the release, which began in 2023 and had already prompted an earlier blanket ban on Japanese marine goods. Beijing had only recently restarted purchases of some products before the latest development surfaced.The UN atomic agency has backed Japan’s wastewater discharge, the equivalent of 540 Olympic swimming pools of cooling water accumulated since the 2011 tsunami, as safe. China, however, has continued to criticise the operation, accusing Tokyo of treating the Pacific like a “sewer”.When asked on Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry declined to confirm any new halt to imports. Spokeswoman Mao Ning said, “Under the current circumstances, even if Japanese seafood were exported to China, there would not be a market.”Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Minaru Kihara also said there had been “no notifications from the Chinese side on this”, stressing the “importance” of honouring the understanding reached by both governments in September last year on seafood issues.Japanese shipments of seafood to mainland China were worth 15.6% of a total 390 billion yen in 2023, down from 22.5% in 2022. That same year, Hong Kong accounted for 26.1% of the total and the United States 15.7%.Relations between the two Asian giants have sharply deteriorated since November 7, when new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that Japan could intervene militarily if Taiwan came under attack. The remarks prompted an immediate backlash from China, which maintains that Taiwan is part of its territory. Beijing summoned Japan’s ambassador and even warned Chinese nationals against travelling to Japan. It also delayed the release of at least two Japanese films, according to state media.The diplomatic clash is also spilling into travel. China remains Japan’s biggest source of tourists, drawing almost 7.5 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025. But travel agencies say demand has fallen sharply. One analyst estimated that Chinese travellers have cancelled roughly half a million air tickets in recent days.“Recently, 90 percent of our customers (going to Japan) have asked for refunds,” said Shanghai travel agency manager Wu Weiguo, 48. His colleague, 47-year-old Zhou Pei, told AFP “I think relations will be able to improve, as long as Japan can tone down their rhetoric… After all, there are a lot of Chinese people currently in Japan, including my cousin, who is married to someone there.”Tokyo has advised Japanese nationals in China to stay alert and avoid crowded locations. Beijing responded on Tuesday by promising to “protect the safety” of foreigners, while also confirming it had issued a renewed “strong protest” over Takaichi’s comments.Seeking to reduce tensions, senior Japanese diplomat Masaaki Kanai held discussions in Beijing on Tuesday with Chinese foreign ministry official Liu Jinsong. After the meeting, ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China had “once again lodged a strong protest with Japan” regarding “Takaichi’s erroneous remarks”.“Takaichi’s fallacies seriously violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations,” she said, arguing that the prime minister’s comment “fundamentally damage the political foundation of China-Japan relations.”