Tokyo food radiation safety: It's personal: (March 11, 2012)

                  It has been one year since the tsunamis and devastation hit Japan.  For food producers and consumers, they must ask themselves the question: “Are they discipline enough when checking for food labels that indicate food is safe?”  Many still avoid certain fish or agricultural products from northern Japan. Some residents still take food to radiation monitoring stations to ensure safety, although it is expensive to do so, (around ¥3,500 or $42 a visit). But many consumers have gone back to eating like they did before the disaster.

In the article it mentions, 22 year old, Yusuke Okuno, who at first was very carful with his food choosing approach to radiation exposure immediately following the disaster.  These days he doesn't pay that much attention. "It's been some time," he says. "I don't see much point in doing it now."

On the food business owning-side it mentions the owner of a 60-year-old shop and wedding catering business Takasagoya at the Tsukiji Fish Market, the concern is business not health.  "One of the food products I sell is yakidai (grilled snapper), fish used for special occasions like weddings," he said. "There were many requests made by my clients not to use the fish from eastern Japan."  I think that this food safety issue in Japan is a discipline that will be needed for producers and consumers to follow to ensure safety of one’s product and of one’s personal health.

~Chet Matsuura

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/10/world/asia/japan-tokyo-radiation-food/index.html?hpt=ias_t3