Japan Minister, ASEAN Envoys Inspect Toyosu Market

Jiji Press

13:51 JST, February 19, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The fisheries minister Tetsushi Sakamoto and ambassadors to Japan from Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states jointly inspected the Toyosu wholesale food market in Tokyo’s Koto Ward on Monday.

Through the inspection tour, the minister called attention to the attractiveness of fishery products from the Hokuriku region hit by the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake as well as scallops from Hokkaido and other products affected by China’s import ban, hoping to help boost such products’ exports and consumption. China introduced the blanket import ban on Japanese fishery products last year over the release into the sea of tritium-containing treated water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in northeastern Japan.

Ambassadors to Japan from Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia participated in the tour. They inspected a tuna auction, visited sections where fisheries products are sold and tasted scallops from Hokkaido and sea cucumbers from Hokuriku.

“The ambassadors were surprised that such great and fresh products can be caught in the Noto Peninsula,” Sakamoto told reporters, expressing hope that the day’s inspection tour would lead to increased exports of Japanese fishery products to the ASEAN region and the diversification of export destinations.