TOKYO: Japan said on Monday (Aug 28) it had received many "extremely regrettable" harassing phone calls, likely from China, after the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific.
The Chinese embassy in Tokyo said it too had been receiving nuisance calls, from Japan.
Japan started the water discharge on Thursday in a key step towards decommissioning the Fukushima plant, which suffered triple meltdowns after being hit by a tsunami in 2011 in the world's worst nuclear plant disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier.
"A lot of harassment phone calls believed to be originating from China are occurring in Japan ... These developments are extremely regrettable and we are concerned," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the chief government spokesman, told a regular news conference.
Such calls prompted vice foreign minister Masataka Okano to summon the Chinese ambassador, Japan's foreign ministry said.
A spokesman for China's foreign ministry said it was not aware of the matter when asked about the harassment accusations at a regular briefing on Monday.
But the Chinese embassy in Tokyo released a statement saying it had lodged stern representations with Japan about the Chinese embassy and consulates in Japan receiving "a large number of nuisance calls from Japan".