Photo/Illutration The logo of Kao Corp. (Provided by Kao Corp.)

Cosmetics maker Kao Corp. blamed opposition to Japan’s releasing treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea for a recent sales decline in China.

“We experienced a greater-than-expected drop in the Chinese market,” President Yoshihiro Hasebe told a Feb. 7 news conference to announce financial results for 2023.

Kao, which also makes household and other products, has refrained from sales promotions at storefronts in China because protesters continue to call for consumers to boycott Japanese cosmetics products.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, began discharging treated water  into the Pacific Ocean in August.

Last year, Kao’s sales of cosmetics, detergents and other products in China fell 23 percent from the previous year.

The year-on-year decrease was 9 points steeper than in 2022, when lockdown restrictions under China’s zero-COVID policy squeezed sales.

While signs of China’s economic stagnation remain a global concern, Hasebe said nothing would impact the company’s business more than the treated water issue.

He said the company expects repercussions from the water discharge program to linger until the first half of 2024.

Kao’s overall sales in 2023 slid 1.2 percent from a year earlier to 1.53 trillion yen ($10.28 billion).

But operating profit shrank 45.5 percent to 60 biillion yen mainly due to restructuring costs related to ending paper diaper production in China and consolidating cosmetics brands.

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