Michael Cash wrote:

> On Sat, 08 Nov 2003 04:38:50 GMT, "Marc" <box526TR@spamtrap.net>
> belched the alphabet and kept on going with:
> >I keep remembering the stories about how foreign rice and other foods should
> >be kept out of Japan because they have "high residues of pesticides". Then I
> >read a report in the Economist that noted that Japan uses among the highest
> >amounts of pesticides per m2 of farmland of any country in the world.
>
> Yeah, but Japanese farmers use real safe pesticides. I know this must
> be true because very often I see them out applying a fog of chemicals
> to their crops and almost never do I see any of them using any sort of
> safety equipment.

There was a newspaper story of about half a page during one paper's series on
food safety a few months back, explaining how many items got on the Japanese
approved list of food additives:

They were already being used in Japan, and were thus approved automatically.

On the other hand, newer or "foreign" additives need testing and approval.

I can't find that story, but I found two others:

"How safe is our food? Officials struggle to ensure import safety", Daily
Yomiuri, April 18, 2003, p.3. [second of two parts]

"Imported-food inspectors playing catchup: China spinach agrochemical fiasco,
supply glut lead to stricter checks", Japan Times, May 31, 2003, p. 3. [first in
a series]

They say basically the same thing, that the limited number of Japanese
inspectors are only able to inspect a very small amount of imported food (7.4%
of the total in 2001). Considering the majority of Japanese food is imported
(60% of caloric intake), the safety of imported food is understandably an
important issue.

However, "of the inspected produce, 729 tons, or 1.06 percent, did not meet
Japanese standards" according to the Yomiuri.

It is true that there was a serious pesticide scandal with Chinese frozen
spinach in March, when "frozen spinach already on the market turned up with as
much as 2.5 ppm of chloropyrifos, 250 times higher than the standard." This
scandal resulted in a revision of the Food Sanitation Law in September "so the
government could comprehensively ban imports of food items suspected of posing a
serious threat to human health."

There had been "a 7.1% irregularity rate" with Chinese frozen spinach as of
mid-February. What the news does not spend so much time on, and what people do
not care to know or remember, is after the ban was lifted, "ALL frozen spinach
imported after August was within the standard" and "NO violations have been
reported since February".

And again: Just 1.06% of imported food inspected did not meet Japanese
standards.

A far cry from the image the government and media are trying to create for
imported food, particularly from China, and the image many consumers have. I
wonder what the "irregularity rate" is for Japanese foods.

So, the government can "comprehensively ban IMPORTS of food items suspected of
posing a serious threat to human health."

While simply ignoring known Japanese food hazards such as dioxin, pesticides,
and heavy metals with NO "comprehensive ban" except perhaps at the individual
company or local level. Japanese will continue to serve items such as school
lunch curry containing splinters of broken glass (found by an elementary school
boy, in his mouth) without ever reporting it beforehand, though, as was reported
last week, and has happened before. Even a governor, Diet member or cabinet
minister will appear on location on nationwide TV to eat the contaminated or
suspect food and declare it delicious or safe, or claiming even whale meat known
to contain heavy metals will somehow be MADE safe before sale, without a
restriction or ban.