Foreign journalists from Thailand and other places have visited a facility handling fish caught off Fukushima Prefecture.
They were invited to a fisheries’ sorting facility in Soma City on Monday and came from Thailand, Russia, Brazil and Hong Kong.
They viewed examinations for radioactive substances that began after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in 2011.
Officials said that since April 2015, no fish or shellfish have been found with substances exceeding the country’s standard.
A shipment of flounder was suspended after fish containing 59 becquerels per kilogram of cesium-137 were found on July 20th.
The level exceeds the 50 becquerels standard set by the prefecture’s fisheries association. The national standard is 100 becquerels, which is still much stricter than Western countries.
Prefectural officials stressed that rigorous checks were the reason the fish were discovered.
In March this year, flounder was exported to Thailand. It was the first such fisheries product caught off Fukushima to be exported since the nuclear accident. But an event in Thailand to promote the fish was cancelled after a consumer group and others expressed concerns. Exports have remained suspended since.
A reporter from a Thai financial paper said during Monday’s visit that confidence in the products has increased after the facility’s strict standards were confirmed.
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation)