Goods from Japan’s nuclear-leak areas seized in S.China

After an eight-year ban, radiation contamination concerns about imports from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster region still haven’t been eased in China.

Local customs authorities in Maoming, South China’s Guangdong Province have seized imported goods from Japanese nuclear disaster areas, including 1,682 units of snacks and 30 oral health products, domestic site chinanews.com reported Tuesday.

The goods, which were imported through cross-border e-commerce platforms, have been sent back to Japan by the Maoming customs, according to the report.

China has banned imports of many Japanese food products since March 2011 due to radiation contamination concerns after a nuclear leak disaster in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, according to a statement by China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

The ban covers dairy, agricultural and meat products from five Japanese prefectures including Fukushima and four other prefectures neighboring it. Inspection and quarantine institutions need to strengthen scrutiny of imported goods entering China through all channels, the statement noted.

Products originating in Japan’s nuclear-affected areas haven’t been totally eliminated from China’s market by the ban, especially via thriving channels like e-commerce platforms.

For example, the 2017 annual Consumer Rights Day TV show known as 315 evening gala exposed many imported goods from Japan that were on the banned list.