Ohata Akihiro, an official from Japan's ministry of land, infrastructure and transport, said the Japanese government has been strictly inspecting its food ever since the Fukushima nuclear leak occurred.

Rebuilding Japanese tourism

Dozens of Japanese delegations have visited Chinese cities recently to tap new markets and promote tourism-related products. At the same time, Chinese travel agencies in several of the country's provinces have been sending increasing numbers of tourists to the country.

Tour groups from Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province and Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, left for Japan on April 29 and 30, almost immediately after Chinese authorities lifted their Japan travel alert.

The cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhongshan and Nanning have also resumed travel services to Japan.

More than 150 travel groups are scheduled to leave Shanghai for Japan between late June and mid-July, according to China Eastern Airlines. This number is equal to 60 percent of the number of travelers who made the trip during the same period last year, the airline said.

Shi Jianying, the chief of China Eastern Airlines' routes to Japan and the Republic of Korea, said the revival has been "beyond expectations" in comparison to the complete absence of travelers in April.

"The rebound can be partially attributed to travel agencies offering extremely large discounts. Some of them are offering 50-percent discounts," Shi said.

Guo Xiaoquan, a manager with the China Travel Service, said the lowest quoted price for a six-day trip to Japan from the ciy of Hangzhou is less than 3,000 yuan (about $463), or barely the price for flight tickets before the quake.

To reinvigorate the market, travel agencies are trimming their profit margins and finding new ways to offer the same services that were available before the quake.

Hu Zhihui, marketing director of the hotel business department of Shanghai-based ctrip.com, China's leading travel service company, said that hotel prices in Japan have decreased by 45 percent.

"More than 40 hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka are offering significant discounts," Hu said.

Cruises are becoming a new growth factor for Japanese tourism, particularly in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.

The cruise ship "Legend of the Seas", operated by Royal Caribbean Cruise, Ltd, the world's second-largest cruise operator, will make four trips to Japan in August. The ship will leave Tianjin for the cities of Fukuoka, Beppu, Kagoshima and Busan.