Chinese-made dumplings containing pesticides sickened 175 Japanese in a scandal the government says may damage relations with its neighbor, which exported $56.7 billion of food to Japan last year.
``There might be a negative impact on Japan-China ties,'' Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said at a press conference in Tokyo today. ``If both governments cooperate and take measures, the negative impact can be minimized.'' China said it's ordered a police investigation.
The dumplings, known as ``gyoza'' in Japan, are being recalled by Japan Tobacco Inc. and Maruha Corp. in the latest quality scandal involving China. Two weeks ago, China deemed a fourth-month campaign to eliminate ``non-food materials'' from produce a success, after contaminations including industrial dye in eggs and carcinogenic fungicides in fish.
``It makes you scared to buy imported food -- you worry about your kids,'' said Hiroko Date, a 38-year-old mother of two, outside a Fujimart supermarket in Tsukishima, Tokyo. ``I think the government's being slow on this. We've been hearing about other problems with things from China, like lead in toys.''
Yukio Hatoyama, the Secretary General of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, also criticized what described as a ``slow response'' by the Japanese government.
Some Chinese food imports may be banned under Japan's food- safety regulations, Japan's health minister Yoichi Masuzoe said today in parliament.
China is striving to mend the image of its goods after scandals involving products from poisonous pet food to lead- tainted products sold by Mattel Inc. The country picked Vice Premier Wu Yi to lead a task force on product quality last year.
Kyodo News reported more than 500 food poisoning cases as of 12:56 p.m. in Tokyo. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura earlier in the day told reporters 175 consumers had been sickened by the products.
Phone calls to Tianyang Food, the Chinese company alleged to have caused the crisis, were unanswered today.
China has ordered the manufacturer to immediately contact the Japanese importer to remove the product from shelves until investigations are completed, a Jan. 31 statement by the embassy in Tokyo, circulated by the Commerce Ministry, said.
``The Chinese government is extremely concerned about this case and has ordered Chinese police to commence investigations,'' the statement said.
Concerns escalated from yesterday, when Japan's Health Ministry said eight people had suspected food poisoning from eating pork dumplings from the Tianyang factory. Today, the ministry said it had ordered all imports from the plant to be halted and its products stripped from shelves.
The cases have been reported nationwide, with the most severe food poisoning involving a family of five in Ichikawa city in Chiba prefecture east of Tokyo, the Asahi newspaper reported, citing the local health office and police.
``Japanese consumers, already distrustful of Chinese products, may stop buying them,'' said Minoru Morita, a Tokyo- based analyst and author of a book on Japan's ruling party. ``The economic effect will be much more serious'' than potential political repercussions, he said.
The government is attempting ``to get a grasp of the current situation,'' Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said late yesterday. ``What's most important now is information gathering and crisis management.''
Fukuda earlier this month said he will form a consumer- protection agency to address other health and food scandals that damaged his ruling Liberal Democratic Party's popularity.Bloomberg
