Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a brief summit with EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel in Brussels on Thursday.

As a result of the summit, the EU announced it would lift food import restrictions imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in hopes that Japan would ease its controls on EU farm products.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the EU imposed pre-export radioactivity checks on food and agricultural feed from Japan, reviewing the measures every two years. In 2021, the remaining checks were left only on exports of wild mushrooms, wild edible plants and some fish species.

Removing trade barriers

The European Commission said these restrictions had been fully lifted, while noting Japan continued to monitor for radioactivity and stressing that Japanese authorities should publish their findings.

"This move will help drive forward the reconstruction of the devastated areas and is one we appreciate and welcome," Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a press conference after the summit.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said both sides had also agreed to work on removing Japanese trade barriers to EU beef, fruit and vegetables, whose access to Japan is limited by food safety rules.

Kishida said Japan would make a judgment based on science, as the EU had done in lifting its restrictions.The European Union and Japan already have a free trade agreement.

Cooperation on critical raw materials

At the summit, the EU and Japan also committed to deeper cooperation in green and digital transitions, research and security issues.

In an attempt to decrease their dependencies for critical raw materials on China, Japan and the EU decided to step up their cooperation in that sector as well. 

"We both need to de-risk our supply chains so one of our objectives is to reduce over reliance on a handful of suppliers, many of them based in China," von der Leyen said, adding cooperation would include critical raw materials.

"We know that the Pacific security and European security are indivisible," von der Leyen said after leaders discussed their joint strategic challenges at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

In a joint statement both sides also condemned the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling on the Kremlin to "completely and unconditionally withdraw its military forces" from the country.

dh/wd (Reuters, AP, dpa)