Study of the Implications of Japan’s Nuclear Wastewater Discharges on Consumer Behavior

On 13 January 2023, the Japanese government officially announced plans to release Fukushima nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. The decision has sparked widespread controversy and skepticism, with responses and initiatives varying from country to country depending on national positions and policy philosophies. This paper scrutinizes the implications of this policy shift for Japan’s international trade, with a specific focus on the country’s seafood exports and maternity-and-child product markets, which stand at the forefront of stakeholder concerns, and meticulously dissects the multifaceted debate that envelops this issue, drawing from a spectrum of global perspectives that reflect the depth of skepticism and contention surrounding the decision’s environmental and health ramifications. By employing a robust econometric approach, this paper leverages the OLS regression to conduct a comparative analysis of sales figures for key Japanese exports, singling out seafood and parent-and-child commodities, across a critical temporal threshold—before and after the public announcement. This paper analyzes the influencing factors of product sales, and tries to see the consumer psychology. Finally, this paper calls on the international community to work together to safeguard the global environment and the common interests of mankind, and suggests that enterprises should consider policy influences in developing market strategies to address potential market challenges.