On July 23, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced that they had arrested a Vietnamese international student, Hac Thi Phuong Linh, under suspicion of illegally importing 10 kilograms of nem chua, Vietnamese fermented pork roll, and 360 hột vịt lộn.
Linh’s husband, who's only known by his initial T., confirmed to VnExpress that Linh and her mother arrived in Japan on June 13 and brought a large amount of nem chua and duck eggs, which were immediately confiscated at the airport. According to Nikkei, Linh asserted that the food "was for her and her mother,” but admitted that she knew it was illegal to import. The student was later detained for investigation since the police suspected that the food was illegally imported for commercial use.
Later, after testing, Japanese authorities revealed that the African swine fever virus had been detected in the pork. This is the first instance of the disease in Japan. On July 21, police went to Linh’s house to search the premises and arrest her.
After African swine fever broke out in Vietnam in February, several countries, including Japan, imposed a ban on pork products from the Southeast Asian country. Saigon Times reported that visitors bringing pork products from Vietnam can be fined up to VND200 million or jailed for up to three years, depending on the severity of the violation.
T. also told the news source that their family has just moved to Japan. He and his wife have been married for just over a year and rarely got the chance to visit Vietnam. They also just had a baby, so his mother-in-law flew with Linh to help take care of their child. Since the grandmother would be staying in Japan for three months, they wanted to bring extra food to save money.
[Image via Tuoi Tre]
