The release will most likely come shortly after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets with US president Joe Biden and South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol in the US next week and explains to them how the water release will be safe, it said.

No specific date to discharge the water has been decided, top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters during a briefing.

Japan’s nuclear regulator last month granted approval for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power to start releasing the water, which Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency say is safe but nearby countries fear it may contaminate food.

Bottom-trawling fishing is scheduled to start off Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, in September, and the government aims to start the water discharge before the fishing season gets underway, the newspaper said.