Japan has started releasing the radioactive water into pacific ocean after it got the U.N. nuclear watchdog's approval to release treated radioactive water from the tsunami-impacted Fukushima plant into the ocean, despite fierce resistance from Beijing and some local residents.
China has already announced an immediate blanket ban on all aquatic products from Japan.
China’s customs department has said that it would stop importing all aquatic products originating from Japan – meaning the ban could potentially limit other oceanic products besides seafood such as sea salt and seaweed.
Meanwhile, early this month Chinese business magnate Jack Ma had already announced his new startup related to fishery and agriculture, based in Hangzhou city of China, which seems to be a calculated & anticipated move to feed the market demand of China post the ban on aquatic products from Japan.
Japan exported about $600 million worth of aquatic products to China in 2022, making it the biggest market for Japanese exports, with Hong Kong second. Sales to China and Hong Kong accounted for 42% of all Japanese aquatic exports in 2022.
According to statistics from Japan's Fisheries Agency, the total export value of seafood products in 2022 was about 387 billion yen ($2.6 billion) and has been on an upward trend over the past several years. With the Asian seafood market expanding, exports to China accounted for 22.5% of the total, with scallops, bonito and tuna being the main export items to China.
So Jack Ma would be tapping the $2.6 billion market with a start up company incorporated less then a month ago.
Coincidently, Jack Ma, the Alibaba founder has been living in Japan amid the Chinese government’s ongoing crackdown on technology companies including Alibaba and its financial payments arm Alipay.
Even if our speculation is true to certain extent then this way Jack Ma has outsmarted the Crackdown by Chinese regulators, by foreseeing the opportunity in a series of unfortunate events.
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| Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma lectures students as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo on June 12. | THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO |
According to most recent report by a Chinese daily, Jack Ma has turned his focus to agriculture and education. He has made several international trips to learn about sustainable food production. Media has also reported that Ma spent time studying fisheries and tuna farming in Japan, and he also traveled to Thailand where he visited a sea shrimp farming factory.
The nuclear water release, slammed by China as 'extremely selfish', comes 12 years after an earthquake and tsunami triggered a meltdown of nuclear reactors at the plant.
While the Japanese government has said it is safe to pump the 1.3mn tonnes of water into the sea, experts say regional neighbours mistrust explanations from the country responsible for the nuclear accident.
According to the Japanese government, the process is safe as it has treated the water - enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools - used to cool the fuel rods of the Fukushima plant after it was damaged by the earthquake and resulting tsunami.
The so called "treated" radioactive-water will initially be released in smaller portions and with extra checks, with the first discharge totalling 7,800 cubic metres over about 17 days starting Thursday, according to Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).
That water will contain about 190 becquerels of tritium per litre, below the WHO drinking water limit of 10,000 becquerels per litre, according to Tepco. A becquerel is a unit of radioactivity.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant was destroyed in March 2011 after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake that resulted into powerful tsunami waves causing meltdowns in three reactors of Fukushima Plant.
However, it is to be noted that the nuclear plant disaster was completely preventable, foreseen and avoidable, and according to reports, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), had failed to meet basic safety requirements such as risk assessment, preparing for containing collateral damage, and developing evacuation plans.
In October 2012, TEPCO admitted for the first time that it had failed to take necessary measures for fear of inviting lawsuits or protests against its nuclear plants.
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