Another quake shakes Fukushima, but the region wants American diners to trust its food again
At 11:36 p.m. on Wednesday, a powerful undersea earthquake shook the Fukushima region of Japan, leaving thousands of homes without food and water. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings, then lifted them hours later once it appeared the damage had been contained. The world let out a collective sigh of relief. Eleven years ago this month, a much more powerful earthquake set off a catastrophic tsunami that killed more than 19,000 people and caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Since then, exports of food and drink from the region were slowed to a halt. But last fall, after reviewing 10 years’ worth of data, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for those products to reenter the U.S. market, including rice, A5 wagyu, and sake, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. Will American diners, wary about eating food from the Fukushima region, stay away? Restaurant owners say they’re more concerned about supply chain issues—the earthquake on Wednesday forced factories in Fukushima to suspend operations, which will add to supply chain woes. —Mike Dang
