Tainted rice sold at convenience stores, used at 47 schools

Friday 19th September, 07:22 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Latest 15 of 24 Total Comments Show All

soldave at 09:05 AM JST - 19th September

rjd - "Stuff happens sometimes"? Would your reaction have been the same had this "tainted" rice come from another country?
smithinjapan at 09:19 AM JST - 19th September

rjd_jr: "Odd report. How did they find out after the fact, I didn't hear of any health problems either. And where was this rice imported from? Doesn't sound particularly malicious to me. Stuff happens sometimes."

We all know that if this were directly from China (not sold intentionally by Japanese companies despite knowing it's poisoned) you would be up in arms and spouting racial slurs about how offensive the Chinese are. The particular chemicals found in the tainted rice, etc., do not cause immediate sickness (unlike the poisoned gyoza you cried so much about!)... these chemicals cause LONG TERM EFFECTS, including altering DNA (not for the better!), and causing all sorts of disease.

Anyway, your outright defense, simply because it's a Japanese company, is sickening. These people are criminal, and should ALL be locked up, including members of the Ministry responsible for aiding in this scandal, and covering it up. OR, they should volunteer to consume red-bean rice, onigiri, rice-wine, etc. all sold from the company.
pathat at 09:57 AM JST - 19th September

Go further than the tip of the iceberg and the things you find....

"There have not been reports of health problems due to the consumption of those products."

And how would they know if the people who consumed the bad rice are just finding out the truth in the past few days?
Pukey2 at 09:57 AM JST - 19th September

rjd:

Stuff happens sometimes.

Hang on, where's the part where you mention (or copy and paste) the bit about naysayers?
zurcronium at 10:10 AM JST - 19th September

stuff happens? Poisoning kids?

You must work for the outfit that sold the spoiled rice for commercial use that ended up on kids plates.
jerseyboy at 11:04 AM JST - 19th September

Nuckinfutz...totally agree. Suspended sentences because the person has shown remorse and incurred public humiliation, which is the standard here in Japan, is bull. If these guys knew they were going to get something a lot more significant than loss of face, this kind of crap would end. Don't the judges see the trend in corporate ethics here and want to send a message?
littleboy at 11:46 AM JST - 19th September

Why would the author call onigiri "rice balls"? Everyone who read this here in Japan understand that, and even many people back in Australia know what onigiri is. Don't dumb it down.

Besides, onigiri is more like "rice triagonal prisms" than balls.
dammit at 11:53 AM JST - 19th September

Serendipity, I don't think they did pay top dollar actually. I recall a rep of one of the buying companies on TV saying something about paying 30-50% - and something about market value, but there was a sudden shout from one of my kids and I missed the bit saying whether it was 30-50% LESS than market value (50-70% of the normal price) or 30-50% OF the market value. Personally, I suspect that MOST of them at least SUSPECTED there was something dodgy about it, and I believe strongly that some of them knew perfectly well what was going on! (Roll out the dancing girls and the beer barrels and I'll buy your garbage mouldy rice.)

I'm not sure what to make of rjd's comments about not sounding malicious. I assume he's behind on the news for some reason but hey, what do I know? I don't come on here often enough to know if he's biased in some way.
PASHA_51 at 12:52 PM JST - 19th September

Such rice importer should be tried and fed with the same rice for months.
ThreeTigers at 01:13 PM JST - 19th September

"Import"?? Does anybody know which from which country?? China kana??
Osakadaz at 02:37 PM JST - 19th September

This just gets more and more heinous day by day.There had better be some real punishment handed down for a change.Who is to know who has suffered miscarriages,tumours or other sicknesses from these cheapskate companies and Mikasa foods?
borscht at 05:43 PM JST - 19th September

Threetigers,

It was imported from China but the exporter marked it Not for Human Consumption and the Japanese government (supposedly) sold it to Mikasa as Not for Human Consumption (to make glue) but Mikasa sold it as Edible. It really has nothing to do with what country it came from.

I'm sure if the exporter in China had marked it as Edible, rjd_jr would be up in arms about those dastards instead of typing, stuff happens.
Orangeporange at 08:45 PM JST - 19th September

Perhaps consumers will end up having the last say, when they refuse to buy Mikasa foods anymore and the company goes bankrupt. Not to mention refusing to eat school lunches and konbini bento and rice balls for awhile. I am sure as heck going to stay away for sure!
Sammi33 at 02:04 PM JST - 21st September

And how are people going to stop consuming combini bento and school lunches? Housewives buy the processed stuff because it's "benri" less time cooking and more time shopping, watching TV and reading fashion magazines while the kids are at school and juku. Kids are generally forced to eat their lunches, all the same food, same portions, same order, chopsticks in the same hand, same time start and finish, not too fast and not too slow. If you are too slow you are left behind and finally the food is taken away. Other people who live off combini meals usually lack the gumption to push the button on their rice cooker at home.
SwiftBoatVet at 02:20 PM JST - 21st September

Japanese rice is not a good food. It is too sticky, and is teh reason why Japan has so many cases of stomach cancer. It is only good cold for sushi, onigiri etc.

Long grain, basmati and risotto rice are far more versatile and better for your health.