China to resume Japanese beef imports after 24-year hiatus

China's completion of its domestic quarantine procedure came after Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks with a senior Japanese ruling party lawmaker earlier in the day.

The vice premier, a close aide to President Xi Jinping, told Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, that China would soon validate a pact signed by the two countries in 2019, a prerequisite for beef shipments to resume, according to diplomatic sources.

The meeting took place in the western Japan city of Osaka where He was visiting to attend the World Exposition.

Beef shipments to China were halted following the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan in 2001. The Japanese government said it will continue to advance related bilateral consultations "toward an early resumption" of beef exports based on the agreement's validation.

The vice premier was also quoted as saying at the meeting that panda leases are "important for exchanges among the public."

Moriyama, who heads a cross-party lawmakers' group working to promote friendly relations with China, has been calling on Beijing to lease more giant pandas.

Four pandas based in the western prefecture of Wakayama were returned to China last month, leaving only two pandas in Japan. The lease contract for the remaining pair at Tokyo's Ueno zoo will expire in February.

The latest development regarding beef shipments follows the lifting by China in June of its blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports, introduced in 2023 after Japan began releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea.

Chinese customs authorities have registered three Japanese marine product exporters, its website showed Friday.

The positive moves in bilateral relations reflect China's desire to strengthen ties with Japan as Beijing's rivalry with Washington intensifies.

In Tokyo, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Keiichiro Tachibana said at a press conference that the government will call on China "at various levels" to speed up necessary procedures for the resumption of Japanese beef imports.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Xi agreed to maintain communication on the issue when they met in Peru in November on the fringes of an international conference.

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and China's top diplomat Wang Yi also discussed the quarantine accord during their meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to "expedite the process" to restart the Japanese beef trade, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.

As reported previously, the trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and China reach $11.5 billion in the first five months of this year.