In 2011, an earthquake triggered a tsunami off the northeastern coast of
Japan, damaging the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, which released
nuclear material into the Pacific ocean. Soon afterwards, South Korea raised
concerns about food safety and imposed a ban on imports of Japanese seafood
from the Tohoku region of Honshu. The
study reported in this article examined the impact of the South Korean
government’s import bans of Japanese seafood on women in that economic sector. The
focus of the study was a recent WTO decision to uphold the ban, in spite of the
fact that Japan is able to prove the seafood meets safe, approved levels of
radiation. The research focussed on the effect of the ban and its continuation
on the women involved in the sea-squirts industry in Miyagi prefecture of
Tohoku. The article concludes that it is time for the WTO to consider the
impact of their decisions on women and take women’s
issues into account during their decision making.