Japanese Business Community Visits China After 4 Years... Urges Lifting Ban on Seafood Imports and More

Masakazu Tokura, Chairman of Keidanren Japan [Photo by Yonhap News]

A delegation from Japan's business community will visit China for the first time in over four years since the COVID-19 pandemic. They are expected to meet with the Chinese Communist Party leadership and demand the resumption of imports of Japanese products.

Kyodo News reported on the 22nd that about 180 representatives from Japan-China Economic Association, Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry will visit Beijing, China, from the 23rd to the 26th.

This visit by the Japanese business delegation to China is the first in four years and four months since September 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19.

The delegation is led by Shindo Kosei, chairman of the Japan-China Economic Association (and chairman of Nippon Steel), and includes Masakazu Tokura, chairman of Keidanren (and chairman of Sumitomo Chemical), and Ken Kobayashi, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (and advisor to Mitsubishi Corporation).

The delegation plans to seek meetings with Chinese leaders such as President Xi Jinping or Premier Li Qiang. During the visit, the Japanese business delegation intends to demand the lifting of China's ban on imports of Japanese seafood and confirm cooperation between the two countries in the decarbonization sector.

Previously, in August last year, China imposed a complete ban on imports of Japanese seafood in response to the discharge of contaminated water from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (referred to by the Japanese government as "treated water") into the ocean. The delegation will also discuss ways for the two countries to cooperate on stabilizing supply chains.

At a press conference held on the 18th, Keidanren Chairman Tokura expressed intentions to request China for transparent enforcement of the Anti-Espionage Law and the reinstatement of short-term visa exemptions as before COVID-19. Despite the deterioration of China-Japan relations due to issues such as the discharge of contaminated water, President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a summit in San Francisco, USA, in November last year?the first in about a year?and reaffirmed the fundamental principle of their bilateral relationship as a "strategic and mutually beneficial relationship."