JAPAN: Fears on Food Safety Fuel Consumer Awareness

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 21 2002 (IPS) - A spate of recent food scandals has given consumer awareness and activism here, long relegated to the sidelines, a new lease in life in Japan.

” There is no doubt the ongoing BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis in Japan is a landmark in consumer activism,” says Masae Wada, representative of one of the country’s oldest consumer groups, called Housewives.

Japan, which had touted its image of being free of BSE last year, reported its fourth case of the disease last week, causing a new wave of panic among consumers.

On May 13, the government reported that a cow, belonging to a dairy farm in Hokkaido, northern Japan, was confirmed to have BSE and was slaughtered.

Beef from cows afflicted with BSE, or mad cow disease, can infect people with a life-threatening variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that has already been detected in three people.

Because of such reports and public fears after the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in September, activists say for that the first time the issue of food safety has become high priority for both consumers and the government.

Public anger also rose over what was perceived as attempts by officials of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department to cover up their failure to acknowledge the disease, which resulted in the importation of tainted animal feed responsible for it.

The ministry estimates the crisis has cost the domestic beef industry up to 381 billion yen (2.99 billion dollars).

Public concern and the subsequent business slump have also forced the government to take unprecedented steps to appease concerns in the country.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced plans to establish a new Ministry for Food Safety in fiscal year 2003, an independent organisation that will watch over errant producers and enable consumers to confirm for themselves production sites and distribution routes of food producers.

This is a major step given the current system that heavily favours business interests over consumer safety.

For instance, the government normally releases information to consumers only after the company in question agrees to the request.

In addition, there are plans to introduce prison sentences of up to one year and to increase current fines to 1 million yen (7, 850 dollars) for offenders of laws on consumer and food protection.

The biggest boost to consumer organisations has been invitations from the government to play a role in developing a food-safe society.

“Up till now, food safety was the responsibility of struggling consumer organisations. Now, for the first time, we are working together on this important issue,” explains Wada.

The government has announced a plan to commission 700 consumers across the country as “food label watchers” to toughen its monitoring system and keep watch over the issue.

Economist Akira Kondo, an expert on agricultural policy, says the steps mark “a milestone” in Japan’s progress toward ensuring transparency and boosting the importance of civic organisations in its society.

He cited as an example the uproar in April when Snow Brand, Japan’s sixth-largest meat packer, was found to have falsely labelled imported beef as domestic in order to get access to government money.

The media reported that officials had not conducted thorough inspections to monitor the company’s performance, a system that favours businesses over the interests of consumers.

“The scandals, while horrifying, have ironically turned into a catalyst to usher in much-needed reform in Japan. This is particularly significant as (the amount of) imported food is growing,” says Kondo.

The scandals are also fuelling a boom in organic products, as consumers opt for what they perceive to be safer types of food products. It is a trend embraced by consumer organisations.

Hiroshi Shimomura, owner of Green Products, a small whole seller of organic food, reports a sudden increase in sales recorded last year.

“When I first started business ten years ago, it was just me and my wife selling organic tea to the community around us. Now we have ten employees to keep up with the growing demand from organic retailers,” he explains.

Consumer groups hope that the rise in interest in chemical-free food will lead to an environmentally-safe agricultural industry, which in turn will encourage exporters of farm products to develop similar systems in their countries.

Already, Japan’s food industry reports that the organic pie for 2001 was worth dollars 4 to 5 billion dollars, up from 3 billion dollars in 1999.

It will soon become the world’s largest, with sales between 30 to 40 billion dollars in the next 10 years.

“The Japanese are quality conscious and affluent enough to pay highly for something they want. Right now this is ensuring safe food, which is why the interest in buying organic,” says Hijiri Nishizono, a businessman who imports organic sweet potatoes from Fiji.

Japanese consumers are turning to safer food also as they realise how their diets have changed over the years.

The modern Japanese diet now includes more meat and fast food, and this is a far cry from traditional eating patterns that was vegetable and fish based.

This change, in addition to the demands of busy, stressful lives, is linked to the rapid increase in cancer and other modern diseases such as diabetes, according to food specialist Toshiko Sunada, who has written several Japanese traditional cookbooks.