SEOUL -- South Korea's Olympic committee has instructed the country's athletes competing at the Tokyo Games not to eat meals containing ingredients from Fukushima Prefecture, citing radiation fears due to the major nuclear accident in the prefecture 10 years ago, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
Members of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party have slammed the move.
Only safe agricultural and fishery products that have been tested for radioactive materials are currently being shipped from the prefecture.
However, the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee claims there is a risk that ingredients from the prefecture are radioactively contaminated as a result of the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 power plant that was triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
An official from the South Korean committee told The Yomiuri Shimbun that it has warned athletes not to consume dishes containing ingredients from Fukushima due to the "risk of radioactive contamination," even though the organizing committee of the Tokyo Games has shown test results that indicate the safety of the ingredients.
The Korean Sport and Olympic Committee will operate a "meal support center" at a hotel near the athletes' village from Tuesday where meals will be prepared and delivered to South Korean athletes in the village. Twenty-four South Korean chefs and dietitians, among others, will be based at the center.
According to the committee, South Korea operated similar centers at past Olympics for purposes such as nutritional management. At this year's Games, the center will use ingredients mainly from South Korea because of the alleged risk of radioactive materials in ingredients.
South Korea continues to impose an import ban on marine products from eight prefectures including Fukushima, according to Japan's Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.
"It is a move that tramples on the hearts of the people of Fukushima Prefecture," said Masahisa Sato, director of the LDP's foreign affairs division.
Cafeterias at the athletes' village offer a wide range of meals, including dishes that contain ingredients from Fukushima and other disaster-hit areas in Japan.
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