INTERVIEW: Japan Aiming to Diversify Export Markets to Cut Risks

Tokyo, Sept. 16 (Jiji Press)--New Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Ichiro Miyashita has expressed his intention to work on diversifying export destinations to reduce risks in the wake of China's blanket import ban on aquatic products from Japan.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to spikes in prices for and shortages of fertilizers and feed, and it is becoming clear that Japan depends too much on certain countries for procurement," Miyashita said in an interview with media organizations including Jiji Press.

He said: "It is important to reduce risks from the standpoint of economic security. We will redouble efforts to make sure that Japan can import food and production materials stably."

China introduced the all-out import ban on Japanese fishery products in response to the start on Aug. 24 of the release of treated water containing tritium, a radioactive substance, into the ocean from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s meltdown-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, which was damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Miyashita, who took up the ministerial post in a cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, stressed that the government will maintain its targets of increasing Japan's exports of agriculture, forestry and fishery goods and food to 2 trillion yen in 2025 and to 5 trillion yen in 2030. Such exports totaled 1.4 trillion yen in 2022.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]