Radioactive sushi: Japan-South Korea spat extends to Olympic cuisine

Washington Post ^ | August 23 | Simon Denyer

[BenLurkin]

With tensions between the neighbors the highest in decades, South Korea’s delegation to Japan’s 2020 Games raised concerns this week about radiation at Olympic venues near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant and the risk that athletes might consume contaminated food.

The protest formed part of a three-pronged attack that suggested South Korea is using the tsunami-induced 2011 nuclear meltdown as another stick with which to poke Japan. The two sides’ dispute over trade and compensation for wartime forced labor escalated Thursday when Seoul scrapped a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact.

Seoul has struck at what it knows is a tender spot. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set great personal store in a successful Olympics, and wants to use the Games as a symbol of hope and recovery after the Fukushima disaster.

Six Olympic softball games and a baseball game will be held in Fukushima, the prefecture’s capital city. The Olympic torch relay will start from there, too.

Japan’s government says the fears are groundless, with Foreign Minister Taro Kono saying he had “thoroughly explained” the safety of Japanese foods based on scientific evidence when he met his counterparts from South Korea and China on Wednesday.

Radiation levels in Fukushima city are comparable with safe readings in Hong Kong and Seoul, while Tokyo’s readings are even lower, in line with Paris and London, government data show. Food from the region is tested intensively for safety.

[Terry L Smith]

Well, from what reports have been allowed to escape ‘shogun central’, the Japs have their wrist up their alimentary canal on this whole fiasco

[oldasrocks]

I have heard reports that some of the food exported to Taiwan is radioactive. Now sure if the reports are accurate or just hype from Taiwan food growers.

[Wuli]

I think Moon is the worst President of South Korea ever, and Abe in Japan is just plain ineffective. Much worse than the Olympic games snafu between them is that Seoul has just cancelled its military intelligence sharing agreement with Tokyo. China and North Korea are just loving it all, and just how much China is egging Moon on would not surprise me.