The request was made by Kenichi Hosoda, parliamentary vice agricultural minister, to Brazilian farm and food minister Blairo Maggi at a meeting in Sao Paulo.

After the meeting, Hosoda told reporters that Maggi said his ministry does not take charge of the import rules but will positively help discussions within the government progress on the Japanese request.

Immediately after the meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 plant in March 2011, the Brazilian government restricted food imports from Japan.

Although the restrictions were substantially relaxed in December 2012, the South American country still requires radiation screening certificates and certificates of origin for food products from the host prefecture for the nuclear plant in northeastern Japan. (Jiji Press)