TOKYO (Kyodo) -- China is expected to conduct a sampling of treated radioactive water on the premises of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant early next year, another step toward the removal of its ban on imports of Japanese seafood, Japan's industry ministry said Monday.

Following last month's collection of marine samples near the complex, China will carry out its first treated water sampling under a review scheme that Japan agreed on in September for safety checks, enabling a decision on the lifting of the import ban.

A group of Chinese researchers and officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency will take samples of treated radioactive water before discharge into the sea under the new scheme, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said at a meeting in Fukushima Prefecture on the decommissioning of the plant.

China has said that after confirming the safety of the water in sampling tests, it will gradually ease the import ban that it imposed in August 2023 right after the release began.

In October, China joined the IAEA's sampling of seawater around the Fukushima plant conducted according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog's review program.

But it has insisted on "independent sampling" of seawater near the plant in addition to the IAEA's reviews of the discharge, and Japan ultimately agreed to this, provided the IAEA was involved so as to ensure fairness and objectivity.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Since then, water pumped into the ruined reactors at the plant to cool the melted fuel has accumulated, mixed with rain and groundwater. The water is being treated using an advanced liquid processing system, or ALPS to remove most contaminants, except for the relatively nontoxic tritium.

The Japanese government and the plant owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., decided in 2021 to discharge the water stored in tanks into the sea under global safety standards. Still, China and Russia called on Japan to halt the plan.

China introduced a blanket ban, calling the released water "nuclear-contaminated." But it agreed in September to lift the ban, contingent on its participation in additional monitoring activities.