The export of Japanese seafood has dropped more than 16 percent since China and Hong Kong introduced an import restriction, criticizing the release of treated and diluted water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant a year ago.

In a backlash to the start of the release last August, China suspended all imports of Japanese marine products. Hong Kong also halted such imports from 10 Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima and Miyagi.

Japan's fisheries ministry says the country's seafood exports totaled about 288 billion yen, or nearly 2 billion dollars, between September last year and June this year. That's down 16.9 percent from a year earlier.

Shipments of scallops to China were most affected. They plunged to zero in the first half of this year from about 146 million dollars a year before.

But such import bans have prompted Japanese exporters to step up their efforts to find other markets. The ministry says scallop exports to countries other than China grew 42 percent during the same period.