Russian trawlers fishing in Japanese waters undermine its food safety-related ban on Japanese imports

South Korea's seafood imports from Japan fell 12.8 percent by value in 2023, compared with a year earlier, to approximately USD 151.9 million (EUR 140.3 million), according to Korea Customs Service data. The figures are for H.S. Code 03 – “Fish and crustaceans, mollusks and other aquatic invertebrates.” The Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported the drop was the biggest year-on-year decline since 2012, the year after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, when imports of fish and shellfish fell by 33.3 percent.In 2013, South Korea imposed an import ban on seafood from the eight Japanese prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Iwate, Tochigi, Chiba, and Aomori and added testing requirements for seafood from other prefectures, claiming that Japan had issued inconsistent information about radiation levels. That ban remains in place, despite a warmer diplomatic approach toward Japan by South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office in 2022. South Korea has generally ...