Politics & Government

China Set to Resume Importing Japanese Beef; Move Would Implement Agreement Reached in 2019

Yomiuri Shimbun file photos
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, right, and Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:40 JST, July 11, 2025

A Japan-China agreement necessary to resume China’s imports of Japanese beef has taken effect, Japan’s Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met in Osaka for about 30 minutes on Friday, and He is believed to have explained the completion of China’s domestic procedures to put the agreement into effect. The Japanese side intends to hasten procedures to resume beef exports to China at the earliest possible date.

China suspended imports of Japanese beef following an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Japan in September 2001. In November 2019, Japan and China signed a treaty on cooperation in animal health and quarantine, which stipulates bilateral cooperation on quarantine and other matters to strengthen control of animal diseases such as BSE and foot-and-mouth disease and to promote safe trade.

Although the agreement to resume imports had been signed, China kept the agreement in abeyance for more than 5½ years, and imports have been suspended for about 24 years.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba requested the resumption of imports during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November. In December, the two countries’ foreign ministers agreed to resume talks on imports.

Now that the agreement has come into effect, discussions on safety and quarantine are expected to be necessary, and Japan is expected to push for an early start of those talks.

Moriyama expressed his desire to “pave the way for exporting wagyu beef to China as soon as possible” at a meeting held by an LDP candidate for the upcoming House of Councillors election in Kagoshima City on Thursday.

Moriyama is believed to have asked the Chinese vice premier for a fresh loan of giant pandas. Four pandas bred in Japan have been returned to China from Wakayama Prefecture, and two pandas at the Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo are scheduled to be returned to China in February.

He, a close aide to Xi, was visiting Japan to participate in China’s “national day” on Friday at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. Moriyama is also chairman of the Japan-China Parliamentary Friendship Association.