Japan’s government partner visiting China to seek end to seafood ban

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - The leader of the Japanese government’s coalition partner embarked on a two-day visit to China on Wednesday in a bid to seek an end to blanket ban by Beijing on imports of seafood from Tokyo.

Natsuo Yamaguchi, chief of the Komeito party, is expected to meet top Chinese officials and present a letter from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed to China’s President Xi Jinping, according to Tokyo-based Kyodo News.

Komeito is a junior partner in the Kishida-led Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government.

Beijing imposed a ban on imports of seafood from Japan after Tokyo went ahead with its plans to release treated nuclear waste from its crippled Fukushima power plant in September.

It is Yamaguchi’s first visit to China since August 2019. The current trip was originally planned for August this year but was delayed due to deteriorating bilateral ties.

However, the two sides have ramped up efforts to stabilize the relations as Xi met Kishida in the US on the sidelines of a summit last week.

Yamaguchi is expected to propose Beijing resuming party-level dialogue between the LDP-Komeito coalition and the Communist Party of China. The two sides held talks last time in 2018.

During the trip, Yamaguchi will seek lease of pandas from China for the Sendai zoo in northeastern Japan.