Japan to return foreign rice to exporting nations if found to be tainted

Friday 12th September, 12:47 PM JST

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romulus3 at 03:10 PM JST - 12th September

everyone was in on this to make a buck including the Japanese agriculture ministry. even asahi was in on it...Japan is so corrupt. they care noting for their citizens, and then blame the Chinese.

*Asahi Breweries, the latest company to fall foul of the Misawa Foods scandal, announced on Thursday that thousands of bottles of sweet potato shochu liquor are being recalled after contaminated rice was found to have been used in its manufacture.

Despite initial claims by a brewing company commissioned by Asahi Breweries that no contaminated rice was ever used in its products, it later emerged that some rice used to make nine varieties of sweet potato shochu liquor contained high levels of the insecticide acetamiprid. There have been no reports of any adverse health effects so far.

The recall covers some 650,000 bottles of shochu sold to restaurants, supermarkets and convenience stores from June this year, and is expected to cost around 1.5 billion yen.*
serindipity at 03:15 PM JST - 12th September

Yeah, too right boobug! The managerial staff of Mikasa foods should be charged with intentionally poisoning a large percentage of the population and spend a long time in jail. However, there probably is no law for this kind of thing in Japan. They'll only charged for unfair and misleading business practices. As for sending the tainted rice back, what a crock of poop! So, it means they will use perfectly good rice to make glue while so many people around the world would give a kidney just to have one bowl of rice! How about the international farmers relying on these sales to survive? Are they supposed to eat it themselves? All this because Japan cannot trust its food industry to keep to ethical practices. What a great country!!!
outofmydepth at 03:47 PM JST - 12th September

how is this going to fix the ethical problem of....mikasa foods imported this rice for industrial use and the COMPANY MIKASA decided to make money by selling it as food??????????? this is an absolutely heinous crime by MIKASA FOODS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bamboohat at 05:55 PM JST - 12th September

The move follows recent revelations that a rice product company sold inedible foreign rice, which it bought from the government, for edible use

Look at the word positioning, regardless of the larger sentence.

conlclusion: foreign=bad; government=good
bamboohat at 06:00 PM JST - 12th September

And one more, to review this whole shenanigan: Government knowingly buys tainted rice per some trade agreement. Japanese company buys said rice, lies to the public, and sells said rice as edible. Obviously, the only solution is not to buy tainted rice from foreign governments. Holding Japanese companies responsible would be just too difficult a concept to fathom. Do these government officials have any idea how absolutely foolish they appear to the outside world?
Nessie at 06:15 PM JST - 12th September

Good one, DogDog.
burikko at 06:47 PM JST - 12th September

This is the crime that was committed by Japanese government.

Ministry of agriculture was looking for buyer of tainted rice. Some rice traders said that they had been persuaded to buy tainted rice by ministry of agriculture and had been perplexed.

And ministry of agriculture knows rice is not suitable for raw material of glue technically. They knew the rice will be processed to foods.
elbudamexicano at 09:27 PM JST - 12th September

Please do not send this "tainted rice" back to countries that do not want it nor need it, we have NORTH KOREA on the brink of collapse next door, I am sure that all of those poor North Koreans trying to survive by eating grass and mud mixed with water would know what to do with all of this rice.SEND THE RICE TO NORTH KOREA!!!
freakashow at 10:42 PM JST - 12th September

I agree. Sending this tainted rice to North Korea would do the trick. As for using it for animal feed: bad idea, as it will inevitably somehow get back to us. Also, glue would not be a good idea, unless it is NOT the type that kids use (ala Elmer's). Kids will be kids, and many of them tend to get some in their mouths, noses, etc. Do I smell a lawsuit?
Bogi at 11:07 PM JST - 12th September

I'm sick of rice...
lipscombe at 11:21 PM JST - 12th September

they wont send it back, pure bs.
ca1ic0cat at 02:29 AM JST - 13th September

maybe they should send the Mikasa (and Asahi, etc.) execs to China for a little re-education. Or better yet, send them to NK.

I am still amazed that none of this has resulted in criminal charges yet. What a sham!
rjdsr at 03:15 AM JST - 13th September

It is time for the WTO to crack down on the exporters of poisoned food.

How many people have to be sickened by poisoned food before the WTO will act?

Is this the "gloablization" that Japan must accept?
Terrikus at 04:01 AM JST - 13th September

"It is time for the WTO to crack down on the exporters of poisoned food."

What? It wasn't exporting of "poisoned food". Is it China's fault that Japan uses material strictly labeled "non-edible" and then tries to pass it off as food?

If I sell you two tons of dirt and you try to make brownies out of it, that's no fault but your own.

What Japan must "accept" is that it can't have double standards. For all their moaning over the Gyoza issue, you'd think they were truly champions of the people and put food safety first and foremost.
Dogdog at 05:14 AM JST - 13th September
It is time for the WTO to crack down on the exporters of poisoned food. How many people have to be sickened by poisoned food before the WTO will act? Is this the "gloablization" that Japan must accept?

Obviously this issue is a little too complex for some people to understand.

Japan chose to buy tainted rice, instead of edible rice because under the WTO Uraguay accords, which allowed Japanese products access to the market's of others, Japan was obliged to open her domestic rice market to a minimum level of foreign rice. The Japanese government fearful of the foreign rice competing with domestic rice, ensured that the foreign rice it bought was
1. Low quality and unsuitable as a food staple with other Japanese foods, therefore to be used in rice crackers etc.
2. Inedible rice which could be used in manufacturing and animal foodstuffs.
In this way the Japanese government ensured that the foreign rice would remain outside of the domestic rice market.** This is the 'Globalization' that Japan has chosen to impose on its own people. **