Japan Press Weekly

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2008 September 17 - 23 [AGRICULTURE]

Government has left 10,000 tons of tainted foreign rice uncontrolled for 13 years: JCP representative

The House of Councilors Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Committees held a meeting on September 18 to discuss the problem of foreign rice contaminated with cancer-causing molds and agricultural chemicals, including the pesticide methamidophos, being sold for human consumption.

Stressing that the government is responsible for having allowed tainted foreign rice to be marketed in Japan, Japanese Communist Party representative Kami Tomoko demanded that the Agriculture Ministry fully investigate the matter.

Since FY 1995, Japan has imported 770,000 tons of foreign rice each year ostensibly to fulfill its “obligation” under the so-called WTO minimum access (MA) agreement.

Kami said, “The government has insisted that Japan is importing foreign rice to fulfill its obligation under the MA agreement, even though it includes tainted rice, but the fact is that the MA rice imports are not obligatory. The ministry must be held responsible for what’s happening today,” she said.

Agriculture Minister Ota Seiichi said, “Japan commits itself to importing MA rice in return for being allowed to impose high tariffs on rice imports. “Imported rice may include unsanitary rice in violation of the Food Sanitation Law.”

Kami pointed out that the ministry in its contracts with importers makes clear that MA rice that was found in quarantine to be in violation of the Food Sanitation Law but can be allowed into Japan as a nonfood item.

An agriculture ministry document shows, Kami pointed out, that a total of 10,728 tons of tainted MA rice was imported between FY 1995 and FY 2007 although they were found to be in violation of the Food Sanitation Law.

The agricultural and welfare ministry officials said they do not have any data on the details of the tainted MA rice.

Kami pointed out that rice imported for the purpose of making processed food may have been sold for the purpose of consumption without processing, judging from information provided by a whistle-blower stating that there were cases of similar diversions of tainted wheat.

In response to Kami’s request, a ministry official promised to investigate the matter of imported rice exclusively for processing, and the minister promised to research the case of imported wheat.

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JCP Chair Shii Kazuo in his election tour in front of JR Yokohama Station in Kanagawa Prefecture on September 18 took up the issue of tainted rice, saying as follows:

The Liberal Democratic Party government is to blame for two serious mistakes: (1) It allowed 770,000 tons of MA rice to be imported each year, though it is not a treaty obligation, and (2) Then Prime Minister Koizumi’s “structural reform policy” as applied to agriculture allowed companies to enter the rice market without
a license.