English �V (July 23rd 2001, Monday 2nd Period)

Mad Cow Disease: "The Report Blocked by the Japanese Government and The

Problem with the Japanese Mainstream Media"

Yuichi Kitada

Hi, my name is Yuichi Kitada, and my report is about the Mad Cow Disease.

Now, has anyone heard of the fact that at the end of last month, the

European Commission was prepared to publicize a report concerning the

theoretical potential for Mad Cow Disease to spread in Japan? Yes, this is

true, and it is also true that the Japanese Government had asked the

European Commission to withhold the publication of this report. And in fact,

the government was successful in blocking it.

So, why did the Japanese Government block the publication of this report

about the Mad Cow Disease? What exactly is the Mad Cow Disease? And what did

the Japanese Media do when they heard about this incident? Today I am going

to talk about these things in my report.

Now as I’ve just said, the Japanese Government had asked the European

Commission to withhold publication of an alarming report on Mad Cow Disease

in Japan. Although this report was not officially completed, it is said that

the report would have concluded that while there is no evidence of Mad Cow

Disease in Japan at this time, there is a risk of an outbreak because Japan

has recently imported cattle, meat and bone meal products from various

European Union countries, including ones where the Mad Cow Disease is

already present, like Britain and the Netherlands. Also in the report, Japan

was rated a rank 3 on a scale of 1 to 5. The higher the rank, the greater

the risk of the Mad Cow Disease contracting in the country. But since the

highest ranks, rank 4 and 5 are for countries that already have the Mad Cow

Disease in the country, Japan’s rank, rank 3 is the highest between

countries that do not have the disease yet.

All the information that the European Committee used to make this report

was provided by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and

Fisheries, in Japanese the “農林水産省”. But even though the report was

based on the facts that the ministry provided, the ministry and the

government objected to the European Committee’s findings. It is also a fact

that, it was the Japanese agriculture ministry that requested for the

committee to undertake an assessment in the first place.

So then why did the Japanese agriculture ministry block the report? Well,

according to a spokesman for the agriculture ministry, the ministry made its

request because it did not want to alarm the public unduly. He also said

that the commission’s assessment process was flawed (Although this was not

specified in what way.).

Ok, now I would like to explain a little bit about the Mad Cow Disease.

First, the Mad Cow Disease,”狂牛病” in Japanese, is scientifically called

the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, BSE for short. This is a disease that

causes a cow’s brain structure to melt into something like a sponge. It is

said to be contracted from things like infected bone meal products or meat.

This disease first widely spread in England from the late 1980’s to the

early 90’s, and by the year 2000, 180 thousand infected cows had been

confirmed. But it is not only England’s problem, last year it spread in

France, and the disease has been found in countries like Germany and Spain

too. But up to now, it has only been officially confirmed in European

countries. This is one of the reasons, countries out of Europe, like Japan

and the U.S. are underestimating this problem. But what we have to remember

is that, Japan had been importing cow bone material from England, until

1996, long after the Mad Cow Disease spread.

Now, I think there are two big problems to this incident about the Mad Cow

Disease. Of course the first problems are the actions that the Japanese

Government took. At first, not only did the Japanese government fully

cooperate to the European Committee’s report, but they were the one’s who

asked for the committee’s assessment. Asking for a report to be made, and

then asking for the same report to be not publicized, just because the

results are unfavorable to them, is not something a government of a

democratic country should do. If the government thinks the assessment

process was flawed, they should present their own opinion with scientific

facts, before or after the committee’s reports are publicized. The Japanese

agriculture ministry says that, if the danger concerning the worst thinkable

situation is reported based on inaccurate assessments, it will alarm the

people unduly and a worse situation will occur. Well what could this “worse

situation” mean? The ministry is probably assuming that if the European

Committee’s report were publicized, the Japanese people would stop buying

cow meat. Then who gets the damage? Of course the agriculture industry will

be damaged. But the ones who are going to get the most damage is probably

the Japanese food restaurant industry. Especially places like “Yoshinoya”,

“Gyukaku” or “McDonalds” are going to be heavily damaged. So the

Japanese government has to protect these industries. But remember, it’s our

lives on the line here.

The second problem is with the Japanese Mainstream Media. Almost none of the

Japanese Mainstream Media is talking about this problem. For example, I

looked through the three major Japanese newspapers, the Asahi, the Yomiuri,

and the Mainichi, around the date June 18th 2001. This is the day the

details of the European Committee’s report about Mad Cow Disease in Japan

became clear. Out of the three papers, I could find only one report about

this news. It was in the Asahi newspaper on June 19th. But it was so small I

probably would have missed it, if I weren’t looking for it. (It is about

the size of a credit card.) In it, it says the European Committee’s opinion

is that there is a possibility of the Mad Cow Disease spreading in Japan.

But the report ends with the Japanese government completely denying such

possibilities, as if to say the European Committee’s report was eccentric.

After that I looked in alternative medias like the Japan Times. (Although

Japan Times is a very famous and big paper and sometimes it is thought of as

mainstream media, I’m calling it alterative media since most Japanese

people don’t read it, and especially in this mad cow disease issue, the

paper is working as alternative media.) Then I found an article from the

June 18th’s paper. Not only the size of the report is bigger(It is

15cm×20cm), but also it is much more detailed. For example, as Asahi didn’

t say anything about the Japanese government blocking the European Committee’s

report, Japan Times talks about the blocking and the reasons why the

government might have done so. This incident is also reported in the

International Herald Tribune on June 21st. The size of the report is just

about the same as the Japan Times one. Now I think you can see just how

small the Japanese Mainstream Media has taken up this problem.

Now, about two weeks from June 18th, the day the details of the European

Committee’s report became clear, the Mainichi newspaper printed this

article. It says for the first and only time (up to today) in any of the

three major Japanese newspapers that, the Japanese government objected to

the publication of the report. But although this is an improvement, the

report still seems to support the government’s decisions.

So why is the Japanese Mainstream Media so quiet about this problem? Well,

this is only speculation, but I think, one; there is a possibility the

government is pressuring the media, and two; it may be that the media doesn’t

want to say anything that might hurt the food restaurant industry or the

agriculture industry.

Of course it may be difficult for the mainstream media to report on this

problem since no one knows if the European Committee’s report is right or

wrong. But isn’t it the mainstream media’s responsibility to draw

attention to this issue and talk about it? Is protecting the agriculture

industry or the food restaurant industry so important that we should risk

our lives for? I mean who is the media for anyway?

But it isn’t the first time the mainstream media is doing something like

this. And it isn’t just Japan’s problem. The media all over the world does

things like this. But I think it is also true that it is hard to always

report everything when most of the mainstream media is getting money from

sponsors. (Of course, I’m not saying this is right.)

So then what should we do? Well, one thing we can do is always doubt

things we see in the media. We must not forget that to some degree, most, if

not all, of the media puts meaning in to what they say. They try to make you

think the way they think. Now, this is often the case with the mainstream

media, but I don’t think it is an exception with the alternative media

either. We must remember that all medias don’t always tell the whole story.

(In my opinion, the only way we can make this fact widely known is by

teaching media literacy in schools. But this is a little far from my topic

so I’m not going to discuss it. )

Now, before I get in to my conclusion, I would like for everybody to think

about the so called “薬害エイズ問題” for a second. Although the danger of

unheated blood products “非加熱製剤” was not proved in Japan, the Health

and Welfare ministry at that time, ignored the fact that nobody in the US

used unheated blood products, and kept on using it to patients who had

hemophilia or “血友病” in Japanese. This ended up with many hemophilia

patients becoming HIV positive. Isn’t there a possibility that the same

thing could happen again with this Mad Cow Disease? The European Committee

is saying that there is a strong possibility of the Mad Cow Disease

spreading in Japan, but the agriculture ministry seems to be doing nothing

about it. And they are even trying to hide the fact that the report was

going to be made. The situations are so similar, it is frightening.

Humans cannot live without eating. Eating means living in the human

society. Therefore, the Japanese government must protect our food, not

Yoshinoya’s business. For a safe life and not repeating the same mistake

again, the government must do the right thing and quickly. Because

unfortunately, it is not a problem that will just simply “melt away”.

References:

The Japan Times (June 18, 2001)

The International Herald Tribune (June 21, 2001)

The Asahi Newspaper (June 19, 2001)

The Mainichi Newspaper (July 1, 2001)