What Are the Gender Impacts of the WTO on Local Communities?: South Korea’s Import Restriction on Sea-Squirts from Nuclear Affected Areas in Japan

Abstract

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. Women in trade, WTO, food safety, importance of women in trade, Japan, South Korea, Fukushima, seafood