At the meeting of the MEXT specialist panel on 14 December 2006, a project proposal to establish a human ES cell from National Research Institute for Child Medical Health and Development was approved, the second such approval in Japan following that of Kyoto University Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences (see BJ October 2002). The human embryos which will be used as the basic materials in the research will be provided by Keio University Hospital. Under current guidelines, only embryos which have been cryogenically preserved after remaining unused in fertility treatments can be used. In contrast to the big fuss made over the approval of the Kyoto University project, the panel granted approval of the National Research Institute for Child Medical Health and Development project after only about ten minutes of discussion.

The MEXT working group has reached a basic agreement concerning principles of donation of somatic cells for use in human clone embryo research; that they should be those which can be obtained without physical damage to the donor, and should be donated free of charge. Substantially, this refers to cells that have been taken during operations for medical treatments or for biopsy. However, in the case of donation from patients with intractable diseases, since the target somatic cells are limited, it would be permitted as an exception to cause some physical damage to the donor in order to obtain cells. At the meeting of the working group held on 19 December 2006, final stage work was begun on how to incorporate the principles into the guidelines.

Membership of the second special investigative panel on bioethics in the Japanese Cabinet Office Council for Science and Technology Policy has been finalized and the first meeting of the new panel held on 19 December 2006. It is the first meeting in two years and five months, since the report "Basic thinking on handling of the human embryo" was published in July 2004 (see BJ August 2004). In the first panel, there were differences of opinion concerning human clone embryo research such that, in the end, the issue was forced to a vote on the decision of the chairman, and the research approved. The three members of the panel who were the core of the group who strongly argued for caution on the issue and whose minority opinion was appended to the final report, Professor of Tokyo University SHIMASONO Susumu, Vice-President of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences KATSUKI Motoya, and Vice-Dean of Osaka University WASHIDA Kiyokazu are absent from the newly inaugurated panel.

At a meeting of the MAFF group considering guidelines for cultivation trials of GM crops approved for type 1 usage on 21 December 2006, a report was given on the state of implementation of the outdoor cultivation guidelines. Discussion concerning new scientific findings on crosspollination and other matters was included. The major focus of the previous revision of the guidelines was the buffer distance necessary to prevent crosspollination of rice. Investigations at the Tohoku (NE Japan) Agriculture Research Center in 2004 showed that crosspollinating particles (pollen) were found at a distance of 25.5 m from the plants and so the guidelines were revised to read 30 m instead of the previous 20 m (see BJ February 2006). The latest data from the Tohoku Agriculture Research Center, taken in 2006, report that crosspollinating particles were found at 13.8 m from the plants. The panel concluded that for the present the current buffer distance of 30 is appropriate.

At a meeting of the overall biodiversity impact assessment panel (jointly held with the Ministry of Environment) on 19 December 2006, applications from the Forest Tree Breeding Center for two varieties of high cellulose white poplar were presented, and became the first GM trees to be approved for type 1 usage. Type 1 usage means that there is no impact on wildlife as stipulated under the Cartagena laws, and so are approved for outdoor cultivation. The white poplar (Populus alba) is often seen in parks and so on and is frequently used to line roads.

GM crop approval data for December 2006 - January 2007

GM crops approved for open field cultivation (Type 1 usage) (Biodiversity Impact Assessment Investigative Commission)
Crop	Trait	Application (Developer)	Name	Approval Date*
White poplar	High cellulose	Forest Tree Breeding Center (FTBC)	trg300-1	19 Dec 2006
			trg300-2	19 Dec 2006
Maize	Insect resistant, herbicide tolerant	Syngenta Seeds	Bt11	19 Dec 2006
Rapeseed	Herbicide resistant, fertility restoration	BayerCropscience	PF3	19 Dec 2006
Maize	High lysine	Monsanto Japan	LY38	12 Jan 2007
Maize	Insect resistant, herbicide tolerant	Syngenta Seeds	Event176	12 Jan 2007
Brassica napus L	Herbicide tolerant	BayerCropscience	Topas19/2	12 Jan 2007
* Technically, approval is granted after public comments have been accepted.

Biofuels are spurring on the use of GM crops

Due to the explosion in demand for biofuels recently, maize and other grain prices are rising as competition sharpens between grain for food or animal feed on the one hand and grain for biofuel on the other. The US biotech industry is beginning to claim that the 'only' way to meet demand for both food and biofuel is to use GM technology.

Biofuels consist basically of two types; bioethanol and biodiesel. Currently, most biofuel is (bio)ethanol, Brazil and the US together accounting for about 72% of the world share, with China, India and France following after them. Production in 2007 is expected to reach 68.2 million kiloliters (mkl). The situation in Europe is that 80% of biofuel is biodiesel, 80% of that being produced from rapeseed. Germany is an especially large producer at 1.9 mkl., over half the world's total production of biodiesel.

The main raw materials for the production of bioethanol are sugar cane and maize, and those for biodiesel are rapeseed and soybeans. With the exception of sugar cane, the planted areas of GM varieties of the other three crops are increasing; already the connection between biofuels and GM crops is deepening.

Syngenta's GM Maize

The development of GM maize varieties is being carried out to further increase the efficiency of ethanol production (see BJ January 2007). A field trial was carried out at the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science (NILGS) at Nasu in Tochigi Prefecture last year. The variety tested was the Swiss Syngenta company's "heat-resistant alpha-amylase-producing maize" (see Closeup BJ June 2005). This GM maize incorporates an alpha-amylase gene from a thermophilic archea (a kind of heat-loving bacterium).

Amylase (also known as diastase) is commonly known as an enzyme which catalyzes the hydrolysis of starch into glucose and other sugars. The purpose of incorporating this gene into maize is to increase the efficiency of hydrolysis. The sugars are then fermented and distilled to produce ethanol. Monsanto is also developing similar GM crop varieties, and it is thought that GM crop variety development for the production of biofuels will accelerate in the near future.

According to the Syngenta application, mixing a few percent of seeds of the new GM maize in with conventional maize and then planting and harvesting the mixed product eliminates the need to add calcium and adjust the pH value, normally necessary for ethanol production. However, although it is clear that this maize variety is intended purely for industrial uses and not for human food, the possibility of the distribution of this maize through crosspollination with or contamination of food or animal feed varieties is certainly not beyond the bounds of most people's imagination.