SEOUL – Last year, South Korea recorded its largest annual decline in imports of Japanese seafood since the aftermath of the 2012 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the country imported fish and shellfish from Japan totaling $151.9 million in 2023, marking a decrease of 12.8 percent from the previous year.
This significant drop is the most substantial since 2012, a year that saw a 33.3 percent plunge in South Korean imports of Japanese seafood due to heightened safety concerns following the catastrophic failure at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
In response to the disaster and ensuing environmental concerns, South Korea implemented a complete ban on all seafood imports from eight Japanese prefectures near Fukushima in 2013, a policy aimed at protecting public health and addressing consumer anxieties over potential radioactive contamination.