Tokyo: Chinese fishing boats have been active near Japan's seashore despite a ban on Japanese seafood products in China, Nikkei Asia reported.

The halt on Japan's food items in China came when Japan started releasing treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant a year ago into the sea. These interventions by China have been pressuring the Japanese sailors to flee, Nikkei Asia reported.

"In the last few years, the waters off Sanriku have seen the most Chinese fishing vessels pouring in," a 31-year-old fisherman from Japan told Nikkei Asia in June. The seawater near the coasts of Sanriku and Hokkaido has been known as one of the best fishing spots internationally. Here the warm sea current of Kuroshio and the cold sea current of Oyashio meet, and Chinese vessels have been fishing in the area since 2010.

"An approaching Chinese fishing boat threatened me with a large number of fireworks while I was fishing for saury," another fisherman told Nikkei Asia, recalling an incident when he was fishing near the coast of Sanriku.

He strongly felt that Chinese vessels had been pressuring them to "give up the fishing grounds," according to the Nikkei Asia report.

These fishing grounds are important to the local fishermen. "Except for the winter months of January through March, you can catch a lot of fish all year round, including horse mackerel, sardines, saury, and cod. Japanese vessels and overseas vessels, especially Chinese ones, overlap in the fishing grounds off Sanriku. Thus, the competition for resources has become more intense," said Ichiro Suzuki, head of the Kesennuma Distant-Water Fisheries Cooperative.

According to the Nikkei Aisa report, the Chinese government had harshly criticised Japan's move to release water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, claiming the treated water was "nuclear-contaminated water," resulting in ban on all imports of Japanese seafood products, claiming that the prohibition was to protect the health of Chinese consumers.

The same report claimed that, if the move was to protect Chinese consumers against the alleged health risks from fish of northeast Japan, one would expect a sharp decline in the number of Chinese fishing vessels entering the Japanese waters. However, Japanese fishermen and fishery officials observe that the Chinese vessels are still active near Japan, Nikkei Asia reported.

According to data quoted by Nikkei Asia report, the operating hours of Chinese vessels off Sanriku were close to zero till 2021. However, there was a significant increase in the operating hours of fishing vessels in 2022. As many as 50 Chinese fishing vessels continued to operate in the area daily, according to the same data.

(With Inputs From International Agencies)