TOKYO: Switzerland will fully lift on Aug. 15 its import restrictions on Japanese food products introduced after the 2011 nuclear accident in Japan, it was learned Tuesday.

Swiss Ambassador to Japan Andreas Baum informed Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori of the plan when the chief of the northeastern Japan prefecture visited the Swiss Embassy in Tokyo on Monday.

Fukushima Prefecture hosts Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, where an unprecedented triple reactor meltdown occurred following the March 2011 major earthquake and tsunami.

Currently, the European Free Trade Association, whose four member states include Switzerland, requires the submission of radiation inspection certificates for food imported from Fukushima and nine other Japanese prefectures.

In the meeting at the embassy, which lasted about 15 minutes, Baum told Uchibori that Switzerland will completely end its restrictions on Aug. 15, following in the footsteps of the European Union, which decided in July to fully lift its import restrictions on Japanese food, according to the Fukushima prefectural government.

Uchibori promoted Fukushima’s agricultural, forestry and fishery products by presenting peaches produced in the prefecture to the ambassador.

On Thursday, the governor plans to visit the embassies in Tokyo of Norway and Iceland, two of the other three EFTA member countries, to urge them to lift their import restrictions on Japanese food products.

The prefectural government is considering an alternative way to request Liechtenstein, the remaining member of the EFTA, to lift its restrictions, because the country does not have an embassy in Japan.

JIJI Press