The Philippine government has lifted the importation ban on several food products from Fukushima after the 2011 nuclear disaster in the prefecture, the Japanese Embassy in Manila confirmed Thursday.
The embassy said the lifted ban, approved on Jan. 8, covers meat, fruits, and vegetables from areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear incident.
Japan Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, who was with Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. in Makati City, welcomed the move and expressed hopes for a further increased trade between the two nations.
“Japan welcomes the lifting of the import ban of food products from Japan by the government of the Philippines yesterday,” he said.
“With this lifting, we hope that safe food from Fukushima as well as other parts of Japan will reach many people in the Philippines,” he added.
Last year, Manila has initially lifted the ban on some fish species from Fukushima Prefecture as a gesture of goodwill during the visit of President Rodrigo Duterte and his Cabinet to Japan.
The ban was introduced following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, dubbed as the second-worst nuclear disaster in history after the nuclear incident in Chernobyl.