AJISS-Commentary
The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies
IIPS

RIPSInstitute for International

The Japan Institute ofResearch Institute for

Policy Studies

International Affairs

Peace and Security

Editorial Advisory Board:

No. 206

Akio Watanabe (Chair)
Masashi Nishihara
Yoshiji Nogami
Taizo Yakushiji

12 September 2014

Editorial Committee:

FOOD SAFETY SCANDAL AND
SINO-JAPANESE RELATIONSTaizo Yakushiji
Hisayoshi Ina
Tsutomu Kikuchi
Shujiro Urata andToshiro Iijima
Editor & Online Publisher:

Tomoo Marukawa

Yoshji Nogami
President, JIIAOn July 20, 2014, a Shanghai-based television
station broadcast a program accusing employees
of a US-invested meat processing plant, Husi
Shanghai, of engaging in various malpractices,
including doctoring labels to extend the expiration
dates of meat and mixing rotten meat into theproduction of processed food. The scandal quickly
spread to Japan, creating a shock among
consumers because the plant supplied chicken
nuggets to McDonald’s fast food restaurants andFamily Mart convenience stores in Japan.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and should
not be attributed to The Association of Japanese Institutes ofStrategic Studies.

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The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

Although the news reports on the scandal itself were basically the same in
the Chinese and Japanese media, the interpretations and responses were quite
different between the two countries. In China the incident was regarded as aproblem created by a foreign-invested firm and foreign-brand fast food chains,including McDonald’s, KFC, Starbucks, and Pizza Hut, that had sourced meatproducts from Husi Shanghai. A news report published by Eastday.com, a news
network operated by a state-owned, Shanghai-based media group, blamed theincident on these fast food chains not supervising their supplier’s production
process rigorously enough. The report also revealed that some McDonald’s,KFC, and Pizza Hut restaurants in Shanghai did not stop selling chicken nuggets
even after the announcement by these chains that sales of all meat products
supplied by Husi Shanghai would be stopped immediately1. The stark criticism of
foreign-brand fast food chains by the party-controlled media, together with theimmediate inspections of the plant by the police and the food safety supervisory
authority, led some Japanese journalists to suspect that the scandal was being
used by the Chinese authorities as a pretext to “ruin the reputation offoreign-invested firms.”2
The Japanese media and public interpreted the scandal in a different way.
It was understood as an incident that revealed the danger of foods made in
China in general. Since the “poisoned dumpling incident”3 of January 2008,
Japanese weekly magazines have continued to remind the Japanese people of
the risk of eating food imported from China. Shukan Bunshun, Japan’s
best-selling weekly magazine, launched a series of articles warning of the1“Sanwen fuxi shipin heidong: Wenti kuaican shifou cunzai jianguan quexian?”(The third interrogation on the Husi food black hole: Don’t the fast food chains
have defects in their supervision?) Dongfang Wang, July 21, 2014.
2Toru Sugawara, “Chugoku kigengire niku, kigyo myoshu naku” (Firms have noeffective measures to block suspicious Chinese meat), Nihon keizai shimbun,
July 24, 2014; Kaori Fukushima, “Shanhai fukushi jiken @ chugoku hodo” (TheShanghai Husi incident in the Chinese media), Nikkei Business Online, July 31,2014.
3Ten Japanese citizens were made ill by eating dumplings packed by a foodprocessing plant in China in January 2008. A very high concentration ofpesticides was found in the package of dumplings. Two years later, a Chinese
employee of the plant was arrested for intentionally poisoning the product.
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The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

danger of Chinese-made food that ran for seven consecutive weeks from March
to May 2014. Besides reporting various food safety scandals in China, themagazine named the fast food and convenience store chains in Japan that sold
Chinese-made food as if they were “traitors” endangering Japanese people’shealth. It was only natural that people swayed by these reports connected Husi
Shanghai’s malpractice with other negative information on Chinese food. Afterthe scandal, Shukan Bunshun triumphantly launched a special issue entitled“Highly Poisoned Chinese Food” as if they had anticipated the incident.
However, the Statistics of Imported Foods Monitoring published every
year by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare show that foods imported
from China have had good scores in their inspection records. During FY2013, forexample, only 0.31 percent of the food samples imported from China tested by
the quarantine office were found to be in violation of Japan’s food sanitation law,a significantly lower ratio than the incidence of violations among all imported
foods (0.52 percent). Considering the relatively low cost, improved safety, andthe ease of delivery, it is rational behavior for restaurants and retailers to importlarge quantities of food from China. With mounting media and public accusations
after the Husi Shanghai scandal charging the Japanese firms that sell
Chinese-made food as irresponsible, some Japanese food suppliers were forced
to give up importing food from China, even though they never had any
transactions with Husi Shanghai. UNY Group Holdings, a supplier of processedfood to some convenience store chains, and Lotteria, a fast food restaurant
chain, announced that they had decided to stop sourcing food from China.
The Husi Shanghai scandal should be regarded as a lesson for all
restaurant chains and food retailers, suggesting the need to improve governanceof their supply chains. To interpret the scandal as a proof of danger of all foods
made in China will mislead consumers and lead firms to take remedies that will
increase the risk of food poisoning. After the poisoned dumpling incident in 2008,
Japanese consumers started to avoid all kinds of food labeled “Made in China.”
Their preference led food companies to switch their sources from Chinese plants
to Japanese plants. However, in December 2013, a crime similar to the dumpling
incident was committed by a Japanese employee at a food processing plant in

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AJISS-Commentary
The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

Japan. The man sprayed pesticides more than ten times on the frozen foodproduced in the plant. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare revealed that,
as of the end of February 2014, 2,879 individuals had likely been made ill by
eating the poisoned frozen foods. The incident suggests that the risk of foodpoisoning exists even in Japanese plants and that assessing the degree of risk
simply by the origin of food may lead to wrong decisions.
It may not be a coincidence that Shukan Bunshun’s campaign against
Chinese food was launched shortly after the poisoning incident as if to cover up
the suspicions against Japanese-made food and replace them with suspicions
against Chinese-made food. However, misperceptions of risk by Japanese
consumers may exacerbate their risk. In addition, the exaggeration ofmalpractice at Chinese plants while neglecting similar malpractice at domestic
plants may lead to a more negative image of the Chinese, and Japanese
prejudice against the Chinese could adversely affect Chinese sentiments about
Japan. This vicious cycle of negative sentiment must be stopped and replaced
by a fair and scientific perception of risk.

Tomoo Marukawa is a professor of Chinese economy at the Institute of Social
Science, University of Tokyo. His research interests include industrial development,labor market, and regional economy of China.

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