Browse > Home / Agriculture, Business, Export & Import, US / Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef

Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef

October 31, 2007
By Ken Worsley


It has been reported that yet another maker of traditional Japanese confectioneries has run into trouble due to its practice of falsifying the manufactured dates of its products. This time, the firm in question is Ofukumochi Honke, a dessert manufacturer in Ise, Mie Prefecture.

We won’t bother pointing out the connection between Ise and Shintoism. There’s nothing to be gained from reading in at such a symbolic level. If you’ve never been to the Ise Shrine in Mie Prefecture, where the goddess Amaterasu Omikami is enshrined, I recommend going in the autumn. It’s truly beautiful.

At any rate, Ofukumochi follows Akafuku Mochi, another confectionery maker who ran into trouble earlier this month for lying about dates. This follows labeling scandals at Fujiya, Meat Hope and chicken supplier Hinaidori…

Yet, there is still nervousness surrounding the importation of US beef, which currently can only come from cattle 20 months of age or younger (odd that the marketers haven’t started a veal boom, but that’s another story…).

Since Japan doesn’t export much meat to the US, it hardly needs to prove that its own meat (or candy) is safe to the Americans. Demonizing foreign meat is thus an easy game to play. I have written widely on why I think US cattlemen are to blame for their own troubles - and I still think they are - but at this point Japan is starting to look a bit silly.

At any rate, US President George W Bush, a man with the credibility of a broken thermostat, is set to discuss the issue of US beef imports with Prime Minister Yasuo “Sock Garters” Fukuda when the two meet next month in the US (no thanks to Kyodo for already removing the link to the story). It will be interesting to see if Bush, the man who asked former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to describe what a ‘triangular merger’ is, presses Fukuda on Japan’s own food safety issues.

Disclaimer: I don’t know whether Yasuo Fukuda actually wears sock garters. I just imagined it and realized it must be true, or should be.

Filed Under Agriculture, Business, Export & Import, US 

Social Bookmarks:
del.icio.us:Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef digg:Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef newsvine:Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef furl:Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef reddit:Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef
Related Posts:
Bad news for Japan’s beef eaters - price hikes on the horizon
US Beef Coming to Wal-Mart Owned Seiyu Supermarkets
How much beef can you buy?
US Meatpacking Facilities OK: Ministry of Agriculture
Kyodo poll: 75.9% of Japanese say they will no longer use Chinese food

Comments

4 Responses to “Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef”

  1. nokimo on October 31st, 2007 12:25 pm

    It’s interesting how you compare the meat situation, domestic and foreign. But I think as a broad generalization you could say that Japanese companies that deal only with the Japanese people consistently offer an inferior product, lie to their customers and cheat them. Witness Nova and most other conversation schools, the candy companies, various milk companies in the past few years, baseball, sumo, insurance and banking to name just a few.

    Now turn to Japanese companies that deal extensively with foreigners. They treat customers with respect, consistently make quality products and generally treat their employees better. Think of the car companies, electronics and games. They are highly responsive to their customers. They know that foreign customers will complain, file lawsuits and not buy their products. These are things that the Japanese are reluctant to do and they pay for their timidness by being treated in a shoddy manner.

    The foreign countries that these companies do business in often have oversight in the form of government agencies, private watchdogs and the media. All things that are weak in Japan. As long as the Japanese people are willing to put up with this situation there will continue to be these kinds of headlines in their papers!

  2. Ken Worsley on October 31st, 2007 12:44 pm

    Nokimo, check out “Can Japan Compete” by Michael Porter.He gives a lengthly discussion of this problem, though from the corporate/efficiency side, not from the consumer’s perspective. He wonders if those firms with a domestic focus would be able to compete globally, or if their operations are so far cut off from standard practices that they’ve dug their own graves once the consumer base becomes more sophisticated.

  3. Garrett on October 31st, 2007 11:49 pm

    News Zero tonight reported Mister Donut in trouble for misdating milkshake mix and other products.

    Oh, and now that you mention it, Fukuda definitely wear sock garters. It’s so easy to imagine and is such a clear match, it is true, even he doesn’t actually, physically wear actual, physical sock garters per se.

  4. Huth on November 1st, 2007 4:23 am

    Great quote from Reuters:

    Pictures of company executives bowing their heads deep in apology have become near-daily fare on TV news programmes in recent days, rattling consumers who had been more worried about imports from China and a long-running row over U.S. beef.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUST330875

    Really? Does Reuters actually think that domestically produced goods, services or terrorists will ever be more frightening than those from abroad, even if they might be more of a threat?

Got something to say?