Tokyo

The scandal that has surrounded the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Japanese cattle has prompted the country's government to hand over a rare degree of responsibility to scientists. As of next year, ministers will follow the recommendations of a newly created committee of researchers when it comes to food-safety issues.

“It's an unprecedented amount of authority for scientists,” says Takashi Onodera, an immunologist at the University of Tokyo. “The committee members will be like government officials.”

Japan's first case of BSE was confirmed last September. The likely cause was contaminated meat and bone-meal that was imported from Britain and used as cattle feed. But a scandal erupted when the government was criticized for allowing such feed to be imported until 1996, despite it being banned in Europe in 1990. Four cases of BSE have now been confirmed.

This April, an independent report commissioned by the agriculture ministry found that the government had failed to take the opinions of food-safety specialists into account, and that the close relationship between politicians, bureaucrats and the beef industry had prevented it from responding appropriately to the threat of BSE.

The new committee will consist of five or six specialists in fields such as microbiology and food additives. It will submit its reports to the minister in charge of public safety. These reports are expected to have significant binding power. “If I don't follow the committee's recommendations, I'll get fired,” says agriculture minister Tsutomu Takebe.

But some researchers are worried that the government will fill the committee with scientists who will tell ministers whatever they want to hear. “Judging from the government's past record, they will probably avoid anyone who would raise severe criticism,” says Masanori Fukushima, an epidemiologist at Kyoto University.

Pleas to include a representative of a consumer group on the committee have already been rejected. “We want to keep the committee scientific,” an agriculture ministry official explains.