Japan, China to Promote Talks on Resuming Marine Imports; 2-Way Ministerial Economic Talks Held for 1st Time in 6 Years

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:43 JST, March 23, 2025

Japan and China agreed to promote consultations aimed at Beijing resuming imports of Japanese marine products during the first bilateral ministerial-level economic talks in six years on Saturday.

China’s import restrictions on Japanese marine products were among the key agenda items at the Japan-China High-Level Economic Dialogue held on Saturday in Tokyo. The previous meeting of the dialogue took place in Beijing in April 2019 .

The Japanese government called on Saturday for the restrictions to be lifted, but China stopped short of giving a specific timeline for resuming imports.

China banned all seafood imports from Japan following the release of treated water into the ocean from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

“We want to work together to help the people of both countries realize that it’s good to see progress in Japan-China relations,” Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said at the beginning of the talks, which lasted for two hours and 45 minutes.

His counterpart Wang Yi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo, said, “Unilateralism and protectionism are rampant,” expressing his view that economic cooperation between the two countries is important for global stability. His remarks were thought to have been made with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in mind.

Iwaya requested Beijing to resume imports at an early date. In September last year, both governments agreed that China would resume imports after the International Atomic Energy Agency expanded its monitoring, and no abnormalities have been confirmed in the seawater checks that have been carried out so far.

In Saturday’s meeting, the two governments confirmed that they would promote relevant consultations toward the resumption of imports of Japanese fisheries products, on the premise that no abnormalities are detected in the analysis results.

Iwaya told reporters that he had confirmed the progress of the relevant process.

The Japanese foreign minister also called for the resumption of beef imports, which China has suspended since the outbreak of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in 2001, as well as increased imports of Japanese rice.

Iwaya called on Beijing for the early release of Japanese nationals detained in China and that their safety be ensured. He said a series of cases of Japanese nationals being detained in China and its anti-espionage law have dissuaded many Japanese people from traveling to and conducting business activities in China.

He also expressed concerns over China’s export management of critical minerals.

At the bilateral foreign ministers meeting held before the economic dialogue, Iwaya expressed his serious concerns over the conditions in the East China Sea, including the situation surrounding the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture and Chinese military activities.

He also conveyed his opposition to any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo concerning Taiwan by force or coercion.