TOKYO: The United States' ambassador to Japan on Friday accused China of using 'economic coercion' against Tokyo by banning imports of Japanese seafood in response to the release of treated wastewater from the disaster-hit Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, while Chinese boats continue to fish off its neighbor's coasts.

'Economic coercion is the most persistent and pernicious tool in their economic toolbox,' envoy Rahm Emanuel said in a speech in the capital Tokyo, calling China's ban the latest example.