Japan says China’s apparent blanket inspection of seafood imports ‘strongly concerning’

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s top government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said on Friday that China’s apparent blanket inspection of Japanese seafood imports, if true, counters international trends and is “strongly concerning”.

The Japanese government has confirmed that some shipments of Japanese seafood have been held up at China’s customs.

The delays come after China threatened stricter inspections of seafood, given Japan’s plan to release water containing traces of tritium from a wrecked nuclear power plant.

(Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Himani Sarkar)