Japan is ramping up promotional efforts to boost seafood exports to more destinations in Asia, the U.S., and Europe as it seeks to fill a sales gap left by a year-long Chinese import ban, the head of the Japan External Trade Organization said. China, previously the biggest market for Japanese seafood exports, banned purchases of Japanese-origin seafood citing risk of radioactive contamination after Tokyo Electric Power started releasing treated water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean last August. Japan's exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in the first half of 2024 fell for the first time since 2020 as exports to China plunged 43.8%.