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EU-Japan summit ends post-Fukushima food curbs

July 13, 2023

The EU and Japan celebrated their close cooperation at a summit in Brussels and pledged to deepen cooperation in various areas. The EU announced it will lift restrictions on Japanese food imports at the meeting.

https://p.dw.com/p/4Trar
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, poses for photographers with European Council President Charles Michel, right, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
Trade, the climate and security were some of the matters discussed during the short summit attended by Japanese PM Kishida and EU leadersImage: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo/picture alliance

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a brief summit with EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel in Brussels on Thursday.

As a result of the summit, the EU announced it would lift food import restrictions imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in hopes that Japan would ease its controls on EU farm products.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the EU imposed pre-export radioactivity checks on food and agricultural feed from Japan, reviewing the measures every two years. In 2021, the remaining checks were left only on exports of wild mushrooms, wild edible plants and some fish species.

Removing trade barriers

The European Commission said these restrictions had been fully lifted, while noting Japan continued to monitor for radioactivity and stressing that Japanese authorities should publish their findings.

"This move will help drive forward the reconstruction of the devastated areas and is one we appreciate and welcome," Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a press conference after the summit.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said both sides had also agreed to work on removing Japanese trade barriers to EU beef, fruit and vegetables, whose access to Japan is limited by food safety rules.

Kishida said Japan would make a judgment based on science, as the EU had done in lifting its restrictions.The European Union and Japan already have a free trade agreement.

Japan to release treated Fukushima wastewater into Pacific

Cooperation on critical raw materials

At the summit, the EU and Japan also committed to deeper cooperation in green and digital transitions, research and security issues.

In an attempt to decrease their dependencies for critical raw materials on China, Japan and the EU decided to step up their cooperation in that sector as well. 

"We both need to de-risk our supply chains so one of our objectives is to reduce over reliance on a handful of suppliers, many of them based in China," von der Leyen said, adding cooperation would include critical raw materials.

"We know that the Pacific security and European security are indivisible," von der Leyen said after leaders discussed their joint strategic challenges at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

In a joint statement both sides also condemned the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling on the Kremlin to "completely and unconditionally withdraw its military forces" from the country.

dh/wd (Reuters, AP, dpa)