China to resume beef imports from Japan after 24-year hiatus

China said Friday it will soon finalize arrangements to activate a long-delayed agreement allowing Japanese beef exports to China to resume for the first time in 24 years, according to Kyodo News.

China's Vice Premier He Lifeng gave the news to Hiroshi Moriyama, the secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, during a meeting in the coastal city of Osaka.

The Chinese official was there to attend the 2025 World Expo, said the agency, citing diplomatic sources.

Japan and China in 2019 signed a cooperation agreement on animal health and quarantine, aiming to lift a ban imposed after Japan's 2001 outbreak of mad cow disease.

But the agreement was not implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest news follows China last month partially lifting a years-long blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports.

The blanket ban was imposed after Tokyo Electric Power Company began releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean in August 2023.

On Thursday, during a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi also agreed to accelerate efforts to bring the agreement on cooperation in animal health and quarantine into effect, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.