A weekly roundup of news & information from Terrie Lloyd. (http://www.terrie.com)

General Edition Sunday, July 17, 2011, Issue No. 622

INDEX

• What’s new
• News
• Candidate roundup/Vacancies
• Upcoming events
• Corrections/Feedback
• News credits and subscription information

On July 4th we wrote a piece joining the dots on radiation concentrations in places around Tokyo where there should not be any. It seemed to us that radioactive nuclides, like non-radioactive heavy metals, appear to be able to be concentrated under certain circumstances and therefore even though the atmosphere registers as clean, perhaps we should still be worried about our food supply.

That article generated a lot of response, especially from readers with children, wondering what they could do to limit possible exposure to contamination. Normally we don’t stick to a subject like this — we like to move our focus around a bit. However, barely ten days after our Take, it emerged in the Japanese press that in fact cattle from Fukushima which tested clean on the outside were found to have 2,300 becquerels per kilo (2,300 bq/kg) of Cesium-137, about five times the legal limit, when slaughtered. What’s worse, over one ton of the meat found its way into the food supply, being sold all over the country.

Since then a number of other disturbing "finds" have arisen in the press, indicating that not only were there some very ill-informed decisions made by authorities as to what to do with animal products (meat, milk, fish) in the period immediately after the explosions at the Fukushima plant, but that there still seems to be some sleight-of-hand going on for government food health statistics.

The latest thing to catch our attention, which we appreciate receiving from the well-informed folks at www.safecast.org, is the news that contaminated milk from Fukushima has been mixed with product at factories located as far north as Tohoku. So if you thought you were buying from a safe producing area, the milk authorities have had different ideas.

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This milk mixing revelation, so far unsubstantiated, comes from a Prof. Takeda in his blog, (http://takedanet.com/2011/07/post_088c.html), but it appears to be backed up by a Sankei newspaper article revealing that the authorities stopped monitoring Cesium levels at individual milk producers in April, and instead started monitoring cooling stations where the output comes from many farmers, including those from safe areas. Naturally the numbers were evened out and those farms with "hot" output were no longer obvious as they got diluted with less-contaminated product. Thus it was that on April 26 the ban on the sale of milk from Fukushima was lifted.

If you want to see which brands have been engaging in this dubious practice, go here (sorry, many of the links from here on are in Japanese only:

http://www.teppeinomori.com/201105/20110521001.htm)

OK, so we have the authorities trying to keep the dairy business in Fukushima going through what we think is a quite unethical practice. We suppose that in a twisted logic sort of way, their rationale of diluting dirty product with clean makes sense, since it keeps radiation numbers below the limits. But would you drink it if you knew this?

Our take on what to buy, what to avoid:

1. Leaf and Root Vegetables The advice we’ve had so far is to generally avoid any vegetables from Fukushima and possibly northern parts of Ibaraki. If you can’t do this, and often vegetables are not labeled as to their source anyway, then you’ll be wanting to eat veges that grow deeper in the ground (Cesium tends to stick to the top 5cm surface layer) or better still, eat hydroponically grown veges for a while. There is a plentiful supply of hydroponic Romaine lettuce, sprouts, rucola, sunny lettuce, and other veges.

2. Rice More concerning in a couple of months time will be new harvest rice. It seems that rice planting was given the go ahead in Fukushima after what appears to have been faulty soil testing procedures. The government cut-off for soil samples is 5,000 bq/kg of Cesium-134/137, and the Fukushima government was getting 4,000bq/kg in their samples. However, they were taking samples 5-15cm deep, while Cesium sticks to the surface. Apparently a rice farmer took a sample from the top 5cm of his land rather than below that depth and had it independently tested. He found it was contaminated to the tune of 35,000 bq/kg!!! Documented here.

http://ameblo.jp/noukanomuko/entry-10926646707.html.

Incompetence? Purposeful manipulation of the tests? Hard to say, but our advice about rice is clear. We would stock pile with last year’s crop, before the new Fukushima product makes its way into the food system. Rice keeps forever in the fridge anyway, so we advise buying some month’s supply and let the media do the sleuthing of whether or not the new season’s product is safe or not.

3. Mushrooms We would stay away from mushrooms that come from Fukushima and any neighboring prefectures to the West and North — since this is where the wind patterns blew some of the Cesium-137 from the explosions. Mushrooms with gills, such as shiitake, are apparently very efficient at absorbing nuclides due to their not having roots and stems. Wild mushrooms near Chernobyl are still showing up with contamination 25 years after the event.

4. Fruits The best thing about summer is peaches, and fall the apples – two kings of Japanese fruit growing industry. Our guess is that only a small quantity of these fruits are grown in Fukushima and surrounds, and considering the volume you’d be eating they pose a low risk. However, berries of all types grown outdoors in and around Fukushima-ken should probably be avoided — these are another source of contamination from Chernobyl experience.

5. Proteins Probably the biggest concern is about milk. As mentioned, it has come out that the milk authorities have been mixing Fukushima-sourced product with clean milk from other areas, presumably so as to dilute it. We ONLY buy milk that expressly says it comes from Hokkaido right there on the packet. Our rationale is that it would constitute false advertising if they were to mix it with product from somewhere else.

Fukushima is a major producer of eggs and pork, which we would avoid for the time being, unless they’re labeled as being from somewhere else, or are imported product. What to do with beef is less clear, despite the scandal over mixing contaminated product, because public awareness will probably keep supplier shenanigans to a minimum from now on. However, thanks to the fact that Japan imports so much of its food anyway, as one consumer said on TV recently, "If it’s Aussie beef, I’ll eat it." Yup, you have plenty of alternatives. Try Costco if you want foreign food.

No one seems to know what to do about fish. Personally, we’d stay away from fish that obviously comes from the area, Sanma (Pacific Saury), etc. Instead, it’s not that hard to stick to imported salmon, colder water fish such as Hokke (Mackerel) which comes from the Sea of Okhotsk, shrimp, and other varieties that are unlikely to be locally sourced.

6. Bread and Processed Soy Products Most of Japan’s cereals are imported, particularly flour (wheat), so we think these products are safe. Soy on the other hand may wind up being a "mixed bag" (like milk?). Right now about 2/3 of Japan’s soybeans come from abroad, primarily the USA and South America, but of the remaining 1/3, 25% comes from Tohoku. We don’t know how much comes from Fukushima to the south, but our guess from agriculture production figures, is that it’s not much.

7. Local Organic and Traceable Sources If you are particularly concerned about source of produce, then consider shopping online. If you use Radish Boya (http://www.radishbo-ya.co.jp), an organic food supplier which is extremely popular and well priced, they state where the food comes from. Lots of Ibaraki-ken sourced product, though, so we’re not sure how good this is. Other prefectures where they appear to have contract farms producing in large volume are in Chiba and Gunma — both of which had less exposure to the fall-out from the explosions. Radish Boya also tests its food for radiation and generally to date they have been reliable with food safety awareness — their brand would be destroyed overnight if they weren’t.  8. Kyushu sourcing If you are really concerned, then you could consider sourcing from Kyushu and other further locations. Here are some links to such sites. Again all in Japanese.

http://www.green-grace.co.jp/ http://vegetaberus.com/?tid=1&mode=f7 http://www.k-vf.com/

Lastly, we wish to keep things in perspective. At the levels Cesium is being detected in our food in and around Tokyo (versus right next to the Fukushima plant), the situation appears to still be safe for adults. As an indication, the US government says that if 100,000 people were continuously exposed to a layer of soil with an initial average concentration of 1 pCi/g (by our calculations, about 37bq/kg) of Cesium-137, then 6 individuals would be predicted to die of cancer that could be related to the exposure. This compares to about 20,000 people who would die from other types of cancer (US average). The Japanese limit for food is 300 bq/kg, and in eating such food, you would be excreting most Cesium-137 nuclides within 30 days.

 …The information janitors/

• Rebuilding in Tohoku very slow
• One STD you do not want to catch
• Fall off in tourists is slowing
• Reuters poll forecasts economic recovery
• Youtube releasing foreign language subtitling feature

Rebuilding in Tohoku very slow

We speculated in a previous Terrie’s Take that there would be little in the Tohoku rebuilding efforts for foreign building materials suppliers, and this has turned out to be the case for Japanese suppliers as well. Four months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Q1 contract value of public works projects actually dropped 5% over the same period in the previous year. Furthermore, there is apparently a glut of building materials that were stockpiled in anticipation of a building boom. Government plans for reconstruction have been delayed by the massive clean-up first required, and also the lack of local coordination available to get projects started. ***Ed: Understandable, in that many of the government personnel needed may not be alive any longer, but one has to wonder why the Central government can’t get a proper plan in place quicker than this…?** (Source: TT commentary from e.nikkei.com, Jul 12, 2011)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20110712D12HH478.htm

One STD you do not want to catch

Researchers in Japan and Sweden have apparently discovered a new type of gonorrhea (VD) that is resistant to front-line antibiotics such as Cipro. The new strain is called H041 and it has shown up in Japan first. H041 appears to be untreatable, after tests with ceftriaxone — the drug usually used for modern gonorrhea — administered at 8x the normal dosage failed to have any effect. So far there have only been a few cases in Japan of H041, but fears are that it may spread quickly. (Source: TT commentary from npr.org, Jul 21, 2011)

http://n.pr/oKyXHu

Fall off in tourists is slowing

The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has announced that the June drop off of tourists to Japan took a smaller fall of 36%, compared to the March-May period when the numbers were down 50%-60% (depending on the month). The JNTO says that the situation will continue to be dire until the Fukushima power plant is made safe. The organization also noted that despite numbers being well down, a quick recovery is possible, as evidenced by worse numbers (than this year) back in 2009 after the Lehman Shock, then the subsequent resurgence in 2010. ***Ed: Here’s hoping that 2012 will be a strong year for Japan-bound tourism.** (Source: TT commentary from mainichi.jp, Jul 15, 2011)

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110715p2g00m0dm015000c.html

Reuters poll forecasts economic recovery

A Reuters poll of 30 leading economists in Japan has found that the experts are predicting an economic recovery for the nation in the second half of this year. The outlook is for growth of 0.2% in this fiscal year through to March 2012, and 2.7% for FY 2012 ending March 2013. The fact that the nation is emerging from the disaster so quickly, with May factory output volumes jumping significantly is apparently taking finance people by surprise. Nonetheless, the economists have commented that things could be even better is political infighting was toned down. (Source: TT commentary from reuters.com, Jul 14, 2011)

http://reut.rs/p1pCNe

Youtube releasing foreign language subtitling feature

YouTube has announced an automated foreign language service for more than 50 languages, including Japanese. Apparently the software analyzes speech in the videos and displays captions in that language below. Once the captions are created, users can search for video content based on the words thus subtitled. ***Ed: Of course the holy grail will be if they create automated translations of the captions, so that foreigners can watch Japanese talk shows… .** (Source: TT commentary from e.nikkei.co.jp, Jul 15, 2011)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20110715D15JFN02.htm

NOTE: Broken links
Many online news sources remove their articles after just a few days of posting them, thus breaking our links — we apologize for the inconvenience.

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In this section we run comments and corrections submitted by readers. We encourage you to spot our mistakes and amplify our points. Click here.

*** More on tracking food sources…

=> Reader contribution:

I just wanted to add a comment about the safety of the food here in Tokyo. I share your concern, particularly about foods such as dairy products. Yoghurt is also an important part of my diet, so I have taken to making my own. It does take some extra effort to find milk from areas that are distant from the obviously radiation-affected areas. And I guess there is still an issue of how far away is far enough and whether the factory uses milk only from the region where the factory is located.

As an aside, I am not sure if this is well known (it was new to me), but the location of the factory where the milk was produced/processed is "coded" onto the imprint of the expiry date at the top of the milk carton. You will see a two (or three) character code, such as "KT" (one of the characters may be a kana character) at the end of the imprint. This is a code specified by the company indicating where the product was processed. For example, Meiji Milk with the KT code is processed in their Tohoku Factory in Miyagi Prefecture. I have not seen any information on this in English. Someone has put together a Wiki in Japanese for these codes organized by various food products and by manufacturer.

http://www45.atwiki.jp/seizousho/pages/47.html

Back to yoghurt, the culture for yoghurt is available in a number of supermarkets, often in the same area that yoghurt is found, but it may be in another section. The type I see most often is for "Caspian Sea" yoghurt from Fujicco. The process to make it is simple, just add the culture to milk in a container that you sterilized with boiling water and let it stand at room temperature for the recommended time. Then refrigerate and consume within the recommended time. With the heat we are getting these days, turning the milk into yoghurt should take no time at all!

Just wanted to add one thing. In some cases, I have seen the production plant location printed directly on the product label area, above the company address. In such a case there has been no code on the imprint at the top. I guess this is when the product only comes out of that one plant, so they can print up the cartons with the location directly on the label.

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