Since the Consumer Affairs Agency has become responsible for all food labeling measures, it has established a working group (representative Ministerial Aide Izumi) in order to formulate a new legal framework. For the time being, the work will be carried forward inside the Agency, but at some point there will have to be dialog with Food Labeling Panel of the Consumers Committee and eventually some coordination with the other related ministries and agencies, such as MHLW and MAFF, and it is unclear at present what kind of roadmap there is for implementing this.

It appears that the final aim is a radical revision of the food labeling system, but since this will take time, the plan is to get started on things that can be done immediately in parallel with the long-term revisions. The objects of this will be labeling of country of origin of raw materials of processed foods, trans-fatty acids, health foods and GM foods. GM foods were not included in the first proposal, but were later added in response to calls from consumers.

Kanagawa Prefecture published the �gKanagawa Genetically Modified Crop Cross-Fertilization etc. Prevention Ordinance�h on 30 March 2010. The ordinance includes the possibility of a governor�fs order to suspend cultivation and punishments for infringements. The ordinance will go into force on 1 January 2010. Based on Article 14, Clause 1 of the �gKanagawa Prefecture Ordinance for the Promotion of Assurance of Food Safety and Security,�h Kanagawa Prefecture already has �gKanagawa Prefecture Guidelines on the Cultivation etc. of Genetically Modified Crops,�h which includes the provision that cultivators of GM crops must submit a cultivation plan to the prefecture in advance of cultivation. The guidelines came into force on 4 January 2010. (See previous article: BJ August 2007)

The draft revision of the guidelines on the use of human stem cells in clinical research was finalized at a meeting of the specialist panel of the MHLW on 12 April 2010. The main focus of this guideline revision is to open up immediately the restrictions under which only somatic stem cells such as hematopoietic stem cells can be used under current guidelines to ES Cells and iPS cells. This does not include stem cells sampled from deceased fetuses, banned under the current guidelines.

The revised guidelines will receive final approval after the solicitation of public comments between 30 April and 4 June 2010, the guidelines entering into force as soon as the final version is published.

On 31 March 2010, the Food Safety Commission considered the paper (in BJ February 2010, in Japanese) published in France in December 2009 claiming to have found impacts such as lesions and so on to the kidneys, livers and other detoxifying organs in experiments where GM maize was fed to rats. As a result it was concluded that there was no new concern over GM foods and that there was no necessity to revise the safety screening procedures.

Monsanto announced on 19 April 2010 plans for cultivation trials for a new GM soybean variety resistant to the herbicide Dicamba, a benzoic acid herbicide. The purpose of the trial is to assess biodiversity aspects and the cultivation will be carried out at the company�fs fields in Ibaraki Prefecture. The cultivation is scheduled to begin in early June for harvesting in October, followed by an overwintering survey to be completed in January 2011. (Monsanto Japan 2010/04/19)