Souring Relations Between Japan and China Over Beauty and Fukushima Water

TOKYO — What’s koi got to do with it? Souring relations between Asian rivals Japan and China now seem to be snagged on calm-inducing beauty in spas, museums and gardens. The slippery dispute between Asia’s two biggest economies adds to their spat over Japan 's release into the sea of treated but radioactive water from the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant. And it has prompted more questions than answers.

Since an outbreak of koi herpes virus in Japan in the 2000s, the country conducts a compulsory quarantine of 7-10 days for all exports, including to China, to make sure the koi are disease-free. Initially, China had export deals with a total of 15 growers that also provided quarantine, allowing them to skip a separate quarantine process at another facility. But Beijing let many of the contracts expire over the years.

Top Japanese officials say Tokyo submitted the necessary documents to facilitate koi export renewals well before the deadline, and will continue diplomatic efforts to resolve the deadlock. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Ichiro Miyashita told reporters, 'Nishikigoi is culture, and fundamentally different from seafood, and I believe it is not related' to the Fukushima Daiichi treated water discharge.

The two countries have a decadeslong dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islands that Japan controls and calls Senkaku, which Beijing also claims and calls the Diaoyu. Beijing rotates a set of four coast guard boats that routinely violate the Japanese-claimed water around the islands, adding tension with Japanese coast guard patrol vessels and fishing boats.

Tokyo considers China to be a major security threat in the region and is expanding its defense partnerships with other Indo-Pacific nations in addition to its only treaty ally, the United States. Tokyo is also pushing for a military buildup under the new national security strategy that calls for counterstrike capability by long-range missiles in a break from Japan's postwar self-defense-only principle.

Japan China Relations Beauty Spas Museums Gardens Fukushima Radioactive Water

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