Tokyo again severely condemned on Tuesday the anti-Japanese acts attributed to China since the beginning of the discharge into the sea of ??the waters of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, including a brick throw against the Japanese embassy in Beijing.

These facts, including a wave of telephone harassment targeting Japanese companies and stone throwing at Japanese schools in China, are “extremely regrettable and disturbing”, said Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

He also confirmed that a brick was thrown at the Japanese Embassy in China. The latter, questioned on Tuesday by AFP on this information, confirmed that they were “generally accurate”.

“So far, there have been no demonstrations or violence (…) But there are a few people, alone, who have, in front of our door (…) done what you have just done discuss,” an embassy spokesman said.

These individuals were “arrested” by the Chinese security forces posted in front of the embassy, ??said the spokesperson.

Asked about this, a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin, repeated on Tuesday that China “always protects the security and the legitimate rights and interests of foreigners in the country, in accordance with the law”.

China has formally complained about the supposed “harassment” against its diplomatic representations in Japan, he also added, after a comment to this effect from the Chinese ambassador.

At a press conference, Mr. Hayashi for his part urged the Chinese government on Tuesday “to immediately take appropriate measures, including calling on its citizens to act calmly to prevent the situation from escalating, and to take all possible measures to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals” in China.

“I live in China and I’m worried because my children are going to a Japanese school,” commented on X (ex-Twitter) Taro, a Japanese expat.

Japan had already summoned the Chinese ambassador to Tokyo on Monday to protest against the wave of telephone harassment from China that Japanese companies apparently chosen at random have been suffering for the past few days.

On Sunday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry called on its citizens in China to be “careful in their speech and behavior. Do not speak Japanese unnecessarily or too loudly”.

Mr. Hayashi also called on Beijing to “provide accurate information on the treated water” from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, whose discharge into the sea began last Thursday, “rather than causing unnecessary concern to the population by providing information devoid of any scientific basis”.

China has suspended all its imports of seafood products from Japan since last week, in response to the start of the discharge of water, notably from the injections necessary to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant since the 2011 tsunami in northeast Japan.

The discharge into the Pacific Ocean of water from Fukushima has been validated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Tokyo assures that it will be safe for the environment and human health.

The water was treated to rid it of its radioactive substances, with the exception of tritium, then diluted with seawater before discharge into the ocean, so that its level of radioactivity did not exceed the targeted ceiling of 1,500 becquerels per litre. This is 40 times lower than the Japanese standard for this type of operation, which is common practice in the nuclear industry around the world.

Seawater tests carried out since the beginning of the discharge have confirmed that the level of radioactivity was in line with forecasts and did not exceed the ceiling set, according to Tepco, the operator of the plant, and the Japanese authorities.

Based on its own analyses, the IAEA also assured last Thursday that the degree of radioactivity of the tritiated water that Japan began to evacuate was “well below” the operational limit set of 1500 Bq / L.

In total, Japan intends to evacuate more than 1.3 million m3 of tritiated water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean until the beginning of the 2050s, according to the current schedule.

29/08/2023 11:14:14  –         Tokyo (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP