EU, Japan celebrate close cooperation with end of EU food restrictions in wake of Fukushima disaster

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and Japan have announced that the 27-nation bloc will lift the food import restrictions it had imposed in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a short summit with EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel on Thursday to further cement a diplomatic unity that was only reinforced since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Japan and the EU decided to step up cooperation in critical raw materials in an attempt to decrease their dependencies for them on China.