First U.S. Beef Reaches Japan,
Faces Orchestrated Resistance
By Richard Smith
TOKYO — The first U.S. beef shipment since Japan lifted its ban July 27 arrived here Monday, but the country's consumers and food industry are giving it a cool reception.
Approximately 5.1 tons of beef was sent by Cargill Inc.'s plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado to Costco Wholesale Japan Inc. The Japanese unit of U.S. Costco Wholesale Corp. put the beef on sale Wednesday at three outlets — in the city of Machida in Tokyo Prefecture, and the cities of Yokohama and Chiba in Chiba Prefecture bordering Tokyo. Two other outlets planned to sell the meat beginning Thursday or later because transportation to those locations will take time.
Costco officials opened all the approximately 340 boxes to confirm risk materials, including brains and spinal cords, have been removed. The shipment was inspected by the Animal Quarantine Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.
The shipment was then tested by Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officials for compliance with Japan's Food Sanitation Law, Kyodo reported.
The Tokyo daily Asahi Shimbun said due to reinforced quarantine systems, importers likely will bear a heavier financial burden in addition to time-consuming clearance procedures.
"Imports have been resumed after ample safety considerations, so now it's up to consumers to decide (whether they want to buy U.S. beef)," Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.
But major supermarket chains Ito-Yokado, Aeon and Daiei have said they are not going to sell U.S. beef for the time being due to a lack of consumer confidence, media here reported.
Kinue Adachi, of the 200,000-member New Japan Women's Association, said her consumer group cannot accept the import resumption without full confirmation the beef is safe, the English-language Tokyo daily Japan Times reported.
"They (government officials) can open all the boxes, but what can they check? The meat is completely frozen and they can only see lumps of ice," Adachi said, presumably unaware that the shipment contained chilled rather than frozen beef.
She noted many supermarkets are reluctant to sell U.S. beef due to customer distrust, the Japan Times reported.
According to a June survey NJWA conducted on managers at 2407 supermarkets across Japan, only 1.6 percent said they will sell U.S. beef, Adachi told the Japan Times. She added that 29.5 percent said they will sell U.S. beef only if U.S. handlers follow the same standards as Japan.
Japan carries out tests on all slaughtered cattle, as well as inspections of feed and removal of all risk materials. The country introduced this procedure after detecting, in 2001, its first of more than two dozen BSE cases.
The U.S. has urged Japan to ease the import conditions on the age of cattle slaughtered for beef from under 21 months as at present to under 30 months, the World Health Organization standard.
But Tokyo Medical University professor Kiyotoshi Kaneko, formerly on the 12-member Prion Expert Committee of Japan's Food Safety Commission, tasked with assessing U.S. beef safety, said the U.S. pressure again indicates the issue is really about economy and power relationships between Japan and the U.S., the Japan Times said.
"Health is left behind somewhere," Kaneko said, adding that even the current Japanese standard of cattle under 21 months was set by government officials.
"A member was asked by the government official, 'If it were Japanese cows kept and treated under the conditions in Japan, and if it were under 21 months, would it be safe? The member said, 'Well, it might be,' " Kaneko told the Japan Times.
"Then, only the convenient figure of under 21 months was taken out and applied to U.S. beef. No scientific grounds whatsoever," he said.
Kaneko left the FSC in April, along with five other members, to protest the government's move to lift the import ban.
Meanwhile, MAFF and MHLW officials are continuing a series of 10 public hearings throughout the country over U.S. beef resumption. Called "explanation meetings," the hearings started July 28 and end August 24.
"In the U.S., farm animals other than cows are fed meat and bone meal," said one of about 80 attendants at the August 7 meeting in the city of Takamatsu, the agricultural daily Nihon Nogyo Shimbun reported.
BSE is believed to have spread through meat and bone meal consumption. "There is a risk (some U.S.) cows will also be fed meat and bone meal," the speaker said.