Kyodo
The shipment ban on Fukushima Prefecture beef will continue, as more meat has turned up contaminated with an excessive level of radioactive cesium, officials said.
The government had planned to lift the ban for Fukushima Prefecture on Friday. The ban on shipments of beef from Miyagi Prefecture was still expected to be lifted Friday as planned.
Nobutaka Tsutsui, senior agriculture vice minister, said it would take two or three more days for the government to lift the ban for Fukushima.
According to the health ministry, radioactive cesium exceeding a provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram was detected in a cow transported in April from a farm within a radius of 20 to 30 km of the stricken nuclear power plant.