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U.S. beef goes on sale at 3 stores in Tokyo area



Kyodo News

Aug. 9 CHIBA, Japan



A shop assistant displays U.S. beef at the outlet of the Japanese unit of Costco Wholesale Corp. in Chiba, east of Tokyo, on Aug. 9.



The major U.S. retailer started selling American beef at its three stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area after the Japanese government confirmed the previous day the safety of the first shipment of U.S. beef since Japan lifted a reinstated import ban over fears of mad cow disease. (Kyodo)



home.kyodo.co.jp



3 years after mad cow scare, Japan again buying U.S. beef



By Mari Yamaguchi

Philadelphia Inquirer

Associated Press

Aug. 08, 2006



TOKYO - Japan yesterday imported its first shipment of American beef since January, resuming a once-booming business that has been crippled for nearly three years over fears of mad cow disease.



The 5.1 tons of American chilled beef arrived on a cargo flight at Tokyo's Narita Airport, and its importer and government officials were expected to inspect it today, said Health Ministry official Masanori Imagawa.



Japan banned American beef in December 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease in the United States. That ban was eased in December 2005, but was reimposed after forbidden spine bones were found in an import shipment of veal in January.



Yesterday's shipment, which follows the latest lifting of the beef ban on July 27, came from U.S. beef giant Cargill Inc. and was imported by Costco Wholesale Japan, the Japanese unit of the American retailer.



Costco employees, airport inspectors, and Health Ministry officials were to scrutinize the entire shipment in a three-tiered process to make sure no banned products slip through, said Imagawa, who is in charge of customs and quarantine.



Previously, officials inspected only part of the shipments.



"We'll go through all boxes to make sure there is no problem, so inspection will probably take all day," Imagawa said.



Japan was the U.S. beef industry's most lucrative overseas market before December 2003, importing about $1.4 billion worth of meat. However, concerns over mad cow disease, also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, have severely damaged Japanese faith in the safety of the imports. Those fears were compounded by the faulty shipment in January.



BSE is a brain-degenerative disease in cattle. In humans, eating meat contaminated with BSE is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and deadly nerve disease.



Recent public polls have showed the majority of Japanese consumers are planning to stay away from U.S. beef, and major restaurants and supermarkets have said they have no immediate plans to sell it.

The reopening of the market followed a rigorous series of meetings, public hearings, and inspections of American beef processing plants.



Japan so far has approved 33 of 35 such plants visited by government officials. One of the remaining two was deemed eligible for export, but only with follow-up surveillance. The approval for the other was pending.
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