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| The Food Product Industry |
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| Current State |
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| The Biggest Issue is Recovery of Consumer Confidence |
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Varieties of instant food are good sellers in Japan |
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The outbreak of the mad cow disease (BSE) in the United States and the avian flu in Japan and abroad have hit home with Japanese consumers on the fragility of food safety. This is an issue that the Japanese public cannot avoid, especially because Japan is dependant on the import of many food products from abroad. If the opening of the Japanese agricultural products market advances through further trade deregulations, such as the conclusion of free-trade agreements with Asian nations, the capabilities of the Japanese government and companies in the management of food safety will come into critical question. |
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To make things worse, a flurry of misconduct by Japanese food manufacturers have surfaced since 2002. Companies such as Snow Brand Food Co., Ltd. and Nippon Meat Packers, Inc. abused the Japanese government measure to rescue domestic livestock farmers upon an outbreak of BSE in Japan. While the government was to buy up domestic beef under this measure, these companies conducted fraudulent and criminal acts of selling, to the government, imported beef purchased at a low price as "domestic beef." Furthermore, there was a food poisoning scandal at Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd., the parent company of Snow Brand Food, caused by sloppy sanitary management. There has been an unending stream of misconduct by other food manufactures and retail shops, such as the sale of imported food under the pretense of being a domestically-produced product, or the false indication of the area in which they produced. Agricultural produce from China has lost consumer confidence due to the detection of above-standard amounts of residual pesticides from frozen spinach and other items.
The Japanese Ministry of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which presides over the food industry, had been placing focus on the protection of producers. As a result of such food industry scandals, the opinion that the ministry should be paying more attention to the protection of consumers is becoming a more mainstream attitude. Recovery of consumer confidence is becoming a major issue for Japanese food industry. |
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