Taiwan’s Executive Yuan held a press conference today to address the relaxing of import controls from 5 counties in Fukushima. This news comes as Taiwan is attempting to gain more international recognition and join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Currently only Taiwan and China still have bans on products from Fukushima. This is due to the nuclear disaster that occurred there in 2011 and fears over contamination from radiation. While it does look like Taiwan will relax these rules, it will not be a complete free-for-all.
Products coming to Taiwan from the area will need to be tested for radiation and have their place of origin certified. There will also be a continued ban on all animal meat, wild birds, mushrooms, and rapeseed. Foods that are restricted for sale in Japan will also be prohibited according to the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration. These precautions are still not enough for many in Taiwan however.
As is to be expected, the KMT, and pan-Blue camp in general, is livid. Similar to their stance on ractopamine, the pan-Blues are pushing for a continuation on the ban of imports from Fukushima and surrounding prefectures and cities. Many, such as Deputy Mayor of Taipei Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) have criticized the central government for acting as they see it unitarily and without care for the opinions of the average people. Huang also called for openness and transparency both in the decision and future plans for opening up these imports, and also in the labeling of products from the area when they begin to be sold in Taiwan. Huang and the others upset with this move by the Tsai administration actually do have many Taiwanese people on their side as well.
Many KMT, and KMT adjacent parties have been mentioning the previous referendum results to bolster their claims that this is an undemocratic move by the DPP. In 2018, Taiwan held a referendum in which a question on whether to uphold the ban of agricultural and food imports from Fukushima and the surrounding area. The majority of those that voted in the referendum backed continuing the prohibition of these products. The vote was not even close. 7,791,856 people voted to keep the bans in place, this was over 77 percent of those that voted in the plebiscite.
Unfortunately for the KMT and their supporters, it seems that public opinion might be shifting. The Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation (台灣民意基金會) released a study in January of this year which found that now only 54.6 percent of Taiwanese people want to continue the ban on such imports. While only 38.8 percent support opening up, these polls show a clear trend that is moving away from the KMT’s position.
Data from the Taiwanese Public Opinion foundation on Japanese import ban from Fukushima.
Unfortunately for the DPP, while the trend is in their favor, the current numbers are not. So they are going to need to get people on their side or do something that will make people forget this move, hopefully for them, something positive.
It is certainly possible that the DPP shifting to allow these imports will flip a large section of people who really don’t care that much and just have feelings based on no real evidence. However, it is also potentially true that many will see this as an undemocratic, unilateral move by the ruling party and could hurt the DPP in the upcoming local election. Most likely people will forget about it pretty quickly, just like the ractopamine pork issue and find something else to be upset about.