Agriculture Ministry made grave mistake on BSE: Panel report

A BSE investigation panel set up by health and agriculture ministries published a final report on April 2, blaming the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Ministry for having neglected to prevent the BSE outbreak.

The report said that the ministry made a serious mistake when it failed to legally ban the use of meat-and-bone meal feed in 1996 despite World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to do so.

It also pointed out the ministry's blunder when it ignored the European Union's evaluation in 2001 that Japan was in danger of inviting a widespread occurrence of bovine spongiform encephalophathy (BSE).

The report criticized that the ministries have failed to call for specialists' advice in making policies and that Dietmembers who act in the interest of certain government ministries and industries and benefit from their efforts influenced ministry officials in determining a policy in their favor.

The report called for new legislation and an administrative body to ensure food safety to be proposed by the government within six months.

Japanese Communist Party Acting Secretariat Head Fudesaka Hideyo in a statement issued on the day pointed out that Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro is responsible for the matter.

He demanded that Agriculture Minister Takebe Tsutomu resign his post, compensations be made to people who have suffered damage caused by the BSE, and administrative measures for food safety be improved.

A call for Takebe's resignation is growing even in the ruling parties, but neither the prime minister nor Health, Labor, and Welfare Minister Sakaguchi Chikara are willing to push Takebe into stepping down. (end)