The discussions leading to the institutionalization of production and use of the human clone embryo have begun in a MEXT working group (see BJ Feb 2007). At the meeting held on 6 March 2007, the thinking that three sets of guidelines (the specific embryo guidelines, the rules of practice for the clone technology regulation law, and the human ES cell guidelines) would be revised, and perhaps new guidelines laid down in order for research to be carried out on human cloned embryos was put forward by the MEXT secretariat. Discussions will now begin on the revision of the guidelines, based on the interim report.

A meeting of the Cabinet Office specialist panel on bioethics (see BJ Feb 2007) was held on 8 March 2007 at which the recommendations concerning the draft revision of the human ES cell guidelines submitted to the panel by MEXT were finalised. This revision of the guidelines contains four main points. 1. Institutionalization of institutions distributing human ES cells, 2. recognition of distribution to overseas institutions of human ES cell lines established in Japan, 3. Recognition of transfer and preserving of cells differentiated from human ES cells, and 4. Simplification of screening procedures by making it possible to simply notify MEXT of minor alterations in research programs.

All of the above four points were approved by the panel. Regarding point 3., current guidelines treat differentiated cells in the same way as human ES cells, transfer and preservation being banned. The recommendations, however, state that, "With the exception of the fact that these cells are derived from human ES cells, there is no scientific difference between them and ordinary human cells," essentially agreeing with MEXT's draft. With this a great relaxation of the guidelines for the use of human ES cells is virtually assured.

GM crops approved for open field cultivation (Type 1 usage) (Biodiversity Impact Assessment Investigative Commission)
Crop	Trait	Application (Developer)	Name	Approval Date*
Maize	Two kinds of herbicide tolerance**	DuPont	DP-098140-6, OECD UI: DP:098140-6	26 Feb 2007
Soybean	High oleic acid + herbicide tolerance	DuPont	DP-305423-1, UI: DP-305423-1	26 Feb 2007
Cotton	Insect resistance	Syngenta Seeds	COT67B, OECD UI: SYN-IE67B-1	26 Feb 2007
Cotton	Insect resistance	Syngenta Seeds	COT102, OECD UI: SYN-IR102-7	26 Feb 2007
* Technically, approval is granted after public comments have been accepted. ** Glyphosate + acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibitor

The Hokkaido central agricultural experiment station conducted a cultivation test and discovered that rice pollen drifted much farther than they had previously assumed.

The national guidelines for GM crop cultivation in Japan has set the buffer zone for GM rice outdoor cultivation for research purposes at 30 meters (see BJ Feb 2007). However, Hokkaido's cultivation test showed pollen drift of up to 237 meters, 8 times farther. The Japanese government, in fact, changed the buffer zone from 26 meters to 30 meters just last year, on March, 8, 2006.

This cultivation test was conducted in accordance with the Hokkaido government Bylaw concerning prevention of cross-pollination and so on due to cultivation of GM crops (enforced from January 2006), to ascertain the presence of crossing between conventional crops and GM crops, in order to re-examine the buffer zone problem and to accumulate data. The result was announced at the Hokkaido Food Safety and Security Committee meeting on prevention of cross-pollination caused by GM crop cultivation, held on February, 19, 2007.

Currently, the Hokkaido government has set the buffer zone for GM rice at 300 meters, 10 times the national guideline. The test was conducted for evaluating the appropriateness of the buffer zone.

At the Iwamizawa research field, tests have been conducted for 2 meters and 26 meters. 150 meter and 300 meter tests were conducted at a farmer's field outside Iwamizawa,

Re-examination required for buffer zone

A variety of glutinous rice (mochigome) was used to assess the cross-pollination. This rice was planted in different pots, and placed around non-glutinous rice (uruchimai). The test results showed that for 2 meters, the crossing rate was 1.136%, for 26 meters, it was 0.529%, for 150 meters, 0.068%, and for 300 meters, it was 0.024%.

The results showed that the rice pollen drifted and cross-pollinated up to 300 meters away. The shortest distance from the nonglutinous rice to the glutinous rice was 237 meters.

Hokkaido has planned to conduct further tests for 150 meters, 300 meters, 450 meters and 600 meters, after measuring the results from the current tests, although it is unlikely that the government will revise the current buffer zone.

The question is why the national government has such a short (30 meters) buffer zone, and this must be re-examined. Mr. Hyoji Namai, former professor at Tsukuba University, pointed out that a rice pollen survives for 5 to 6 minutes, and under the condition of a 3 meter wind, a pollen could drift up to 900 meters. Therefore, the national government's 30 meters is far too unrealistic. Additionally, the test results showed that even Hokkaido's 300 meters is not quite enough either.