Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) on Jan. 30 told a news conference that the government is planning to change its policy on food imports from radiation-affected regions in Japan by removing the blanket regional ban and introducing risk-based controls.
Chen’s announcement implies that once the policy is changed, Taiwan will lift its ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures: Fukushima, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma.
That would not only have a direct effect on the development of Taiwan-Japan relations, but is also relevant to Taiwan’s strategic thinking and how it should find a direction for its economy. Therefore, the decision whether to lift the ban is one of the most pressing issues that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has had to deal with so far.
The issue of Japanese food imports has become part of a political battle between the government and the opposition, making it a highly sensitive issue, and the Tsai administration has been unable to find a way to handle it.
Since Tsai won the presidential election on Jan. 16, 2016, many people have been saying that Taiwan-Japan relations will improve during her time in office. There were three reasons for this optimism:
First, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the most pro-Taiwan Japanese leader since the 1960s. His administration’s foreign policy and national security strategy have been aimed at containing China. That makes co-opting Taiwan an essential part of Abe’s foreign policy strategy.
Second, unlike former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Tsai has not been labeled by the Japanese as “anti-Japanese,” and she has taken a friendly and proactive attitude toward Japan. Before taking office, Tsai also met several times with Abe and won Japan’s trust.
Third, it was expected that cross-strait relations would deteriorate after Tsai came to power. Amid the increasing gap between Taiwan and China as a result of China’s growth, it has become necessary for Taiwan to lean toward the US and Japan to maintain its strength and the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait.
US support for Taiwan is basically centered on maintaining regional safety and security. In addition, there is US President Donald Trump’s “America first” policy. This means that Taiwan only has room with Japan to bolster economic ties and expand bilateral trade relations.
I published an article in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) on May 31, 2016, just a few days after Tsai assumed office, saying that the period from that year to this year would present a “golden opportunity” for Taiwan-Japan relations.
I also proposed a new strategic approach: Integrating the Taiwanese and Japanese economies to enhance bilateral relations.
However, the development of Taiwan-Japan ties has fallen short of expectations in the more than 20 months since Tsai took office. The reason for that is the administration’s failure to make any progress in terms of lifting the ban on food imports from the five prefectures.
The ban was implemented after the massive earthquake that struck Japan’s Tohoku region on March 11, 2011. After the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was damaged in the disaster and started to leak radiation, Taiwan started an incremental policy that would eventually ban all food imports from Fukushima Prefecture.
The ban also covers imports of high-risk products, such as drinking water, milk powder, tea items and wildlife aquatic products, from the other four prefectures.
In 2015, the government tightened the regulations on Japanese food imports and required that they must show the place of origin. The move upset Tokyo, and then-Japanese minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries Yoshimasa Hayashi said that Tokyo would not rule out taking the case to the WTO.
Abe even dispatched his younger brother, Nobuo Kishi, who was then the head of a subgroup of the Japanese House of Councilors, to urge the Ma administration not to implement the ban. Kishi’s visit came to no avail, and the issue of food imports remained a major obstacle to Taiwan-Japan ties for the rest of Ma’s presidency.
Tsai’s last visit to Japan took place in October 2015, during the presidential election campaign. She was given a high-profile reception and Abe had Kishi accompany her throughout the visit.
During the visit, Tsai publicly expressed her wish that the two sides would soon ink an economic partnership agreement (EPA).
Once an EPA is signed, the integration of the two economies would become reality. Therefore, initiating EPA talks has become the Tsai administration’s main policy focus for enhancing relations with Japan.
However, talks have not yet begun and the main reason for that is the ban on Japanese food imports. Japan has lifted its domestic ban on food produced in the five prefectures, and so have all other nations except for Taiwan and China.
After Japan lifted its domestic ban, excessive contamination has not been found in food products from the five prefectures. Japan has been critical of Taiwan’s decision to keep the ban, saying that there is no scientific basis for it.
As long as Taiwan groundlessly bans food imports from Japan, there can be no talks about a Taiwan-Japan EPA.
The Tsai administration clearly understands that lifting the ban is a prerequisite for starting the talks and that is why the government has been putting so much effort into resolving the issue.
However, opinion polls show that 70 percent of Taiwanese are opposed to lifting the ban. The question of how to convince the public has become a big obstacle for the administration.
In late 2016, then-premier Lin Chuan (林全) held several public hearings aimed at resolving the issue, but the hearings either ended in public demonstrations mobilized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or were interrupted by protesters besieging the meeting room and interfering with the hearing. As a result, the administration was forced to put the issue aside.
After a year of silence, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is trying to change the policy from a region-based ban to risk-based restrictions in the hope of finding a new approach to resolving the issue.
However, as soon as the news came out, the KMT caucus declared its opposition to the plan and the main pro-KMT Chinese-language newspaper United Daily News published an editorial, titled “Is importing radiation-contaminated food also a Taiwanese value?”, criticizing the Tsai administration’s proposed policy on food imports from the five prefectures.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) tried to resolve the dispute by saying that the Cabinet has not received the ministry’s plan and that no plan was being discussed.
Hsu also said that the Cabinet would make public health its top priority, and that the government would refer to the practices of other nations and international standards, and that there was no timetable for lifting the ban.
The ban is not only an obstacle to EPA talks and the integration of the Taiwanese and Japanese economies, but it would also affect development in other, more sensitive, areas, such as political and regional security cooperation between the two sides.
Moreover, for Japan, developing its ties with Taiwan means taking Beijing into consideration. As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China, Tokyo has made repeated shows of friendship toward Beijing in the hope of setting up bilateral visits between the two nations’ leaders.
Given this atmosphere, Japan might not undertake any breakthrough initiatives as it develops its ties with Taiwan.
Relations between Taiwan and Japan have fallen short of expectations and it seems that it would be difficult for the Tsai administration to upgrade relations with Japan during Tsai’s first term in office.
John Lim is an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Modern History.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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