Are irradiated food ingredients imported into Japan? Food Safety Citizen’s Watch has more details with a report from a meeting with government officials and food companies. Food irradiation using gamma rays etc. damages the DNA of bacteria and has sterilization effects. Food irradiation has also been used to kill insects and stop germination. The efforts to promote food irradiation are supported by Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission. The Ministry for Health, Labour and Welfare is making preparations for allowing the controversial technology to be used on spices by the end of March 2008. Against this background, it was reported on June 1, 2007, that Kikkoman Corp. had recalled a product called…
Protest Against Decision to Cancel the GM Moratorium
Japanese consumers have written to Victoria and New South Wales in Australia, to protest against the two states’ decision to start allowing genetically modified crops: Protest Against Decision to Cancel the GM Moratorium 11 December, 2007 The No! GMO Campaign would like to take this opportunity to strongly protest against the decision that your state has taken to cancel the moratorium against GM crops. In October 2007, The No! GMO Campaign submitted a request to your states that the GM moratorium should be kept in place. This request was signed by 155 different organizations, representing some 2,900,000 consumers. We have concluded that since cultivation of Genetically Modified crops inevitably will…
What is Happening to Tasmanian Forests?
071128-yamaura-tasmania-forest.pdf What is Happening to Tasmanian Forests? Australia is a huge exporter of iron, coal, uranium, and farm products. Timber production is also active, and a large amount of woodchips are exported to Japan to be used as tissue paper or copy paper. Tasmania, an island state, is located southeast of the Australian continent. Its area is almost the same as that of Hokkaido in Japan. Tasmania is an island where the old growth and environmentally sensitive forests grow, forming a very unique ecosystem. You can find rare species such as wedge-tailed eagles and swift parrots. The forests, however, are being rapidly destroyed, because Forestry Tasmania (the manager of Tasmania’s…
International Bad Products Award
Michiyo Koketsu from Consumers Union of Japan participated in Consumers International’s Congress in Australia, October 29-November 1, 2007. CI announced the winners of the International Bad Products Awards, as 400 delegates from national consumer organisations and governments convened in Sydney. The awards aim to highlight failings of corporate responsibility and the abuse of consumer trust by internationally recognised brands. Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, and Mattel top the list of international brands guilty of abusing consumer rights, with Takeda Pharmaceuticals winning the overall prize for taking advantage of poor US regulation and advertising sleeping pills to children, despite health warnings about paediatric use. “Japan has stricter rules and does not allow such TV…
The Japan Times: Plastic Incineration Rise Draws Ire
Saturday Nov. 3, 2007: Plastic Incineration Rise Draws Ire Environmentalists unswayed by limited tests, fears risks (Quote:) Yasuko Ueda, a writer and outspoken activist with the Tokyo-based Consumers Union of Japan, a nongovernmental organization, noted that the government has invoked the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law to require that plastics be re-used as “resources” to the greatest extent possible, but complained that her own ward, Setagaya, does far too little to either recycle plastic or curtail its production from the start. Ueda said she estimated that waste plastic could be reduced by about half were the directive followed more aggressively. “The amount of plastic that absolutely must be incinerated will…