EU lifts Japan food import rules, weeks before nuclear wastewater to be pumped into ocean

Japan's prime minister Fumio Kishida, with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel. The EU has lifted restriction on food imports from Japan weeks before radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant is set to be pumped into the ocean. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

The European Union has lifted restrictions on Japanese food imports imposed after the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, weeks before Japan is expected to start pumping wastewater from the facility into the Pacific Ocean.

China and other countries, however, have threatened to further restrict Japanese seafood imports if the water discharge goes ahead.