PLUNGING beef sales. Restaurants and farmers facing bankruptcy. Government
bungling and inaction. For those who missed it first time round, an outbreak of
BSE in Japan is beginning to look like a repeat performance of Britain鈥檚 famous
nightmare.
Since Japan鈥檚 first case was reported last month, no others have surfaced.
But experts think the crisis is far from over. At least 300 tonnes of
potentially contaminated meat and bonemeal (MBM) was imported from Britain
before the government banned this in 1996.
Earlier this year the European Commission named Japan as a high-risk country
in a report about the worldwide potential for BSE infection. But the Japanese
government refused to publish a Japanese-language version.
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鈥淭here is objectively a risk,鈥� a spokesman for the EC鈥檚 Tokyo office told
reporters in June. 鈥淪o one would expect their authorities not to close their
eyes and to deal with it.鈥�
Just two months later the first case of BSE was diagnosed. Senior Ministry of
Agriculture official Takemi Nagemura told reporters that the carcass of the
infected animal had been 鈥渄isposed of鈥�. Only later did he admit that it had in
fact been processed into MBM, which would have been fed to yet more cows.
鈥淲hen I said the carcass had been disposed of, I meant that it was not
intended for human consumption,鈥� Nagemura explained at a press conference a few
days later. 鈥淲e never intended to conceal anything.鈥�
Ministry officials further astonished reporters by saying they hadn鈥檛 known
it was illegal to process carcasses of cows with suspected BSE, even though
they鈥檇 issued guidelines telling farmers to feed MBM only to chickens, pigs and
other livestock鈥攂ut not cows.
The government has belatedly moved to contain the crisis by banning foods
containing certain cow parts, and burning all stocks of MBM. 鈥淭he government
tried to protect the farming industry by covering up the potential dangers,鈥�
says Kyosen Ohashi, an opposition member of the upper house of Parliament. 鈥淏ut
the plan has backfired.鈥� Now where have we heard that before?
