Despite widespread public concern over genetically modified food, Japan's scientists — in concert with those in other countries — have only recently begun to address questions on the potential long-term risks to human health and the environment from GM crops.

On 1 April, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) embarked on the government's first project to examine the risks from GM crops. As elsewhere, the project will focus on the long-term impacts of herbicide- and insect-tolerant crops on ecology and on agricultural practices.

A substantial proportion of the Japanese public, like their counterparts in Europe, are uneasy about GM foods. Some invoke ethical concerns about the manipulation of genes. Another reason is a relative lack of public understanding of genetic modification techniques. A third reason is government reluctance to label GM foods.

But other factors may be at work. According to Naoto Shibuya, a researcher in bioengineering at the National Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences in Tsukuba, public unease can partly be attributed to an absence of effective public communication of the risks. Shibuya says scientists need to communicate in a way that “indicates what is understood and what is not”.

A low level of public confidence in GM foods is not good news for the government, which is relying on GM agriculture to make Japan self-sufficient in food. Unsurprisingly, finding ways of allaying public concerns is a key aim of the MAFF research project.

Japan's GM regulations are modelled on a framework set out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with a strong emphasis on the concept of ‘substantial equivalence’ (see page 652). But critics question ‘substantial equivalence' as a basis for deciding whether a product is safe, and argue that there is no substitute for long-term risk assessments. “The regulators have overlooked the potential residual toxicity after several growing seasons, and the consequences on genetic diversity,” says Setsuko Yasuda, director-general of Japan's Consumers' Association.

Farm tests: Japan has tough rules on field trials. Credit: HOLT STUDIOS/ NIGEL CATTLIN

But representatives of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as well as MAFF, which are both involved in the approval of GM products, claim that the chances of GM crops posing health and environmental risks are negligible, and that such risks would be detected during safety tests.

In some ways, Japan's regulatory system for GM crops is tougher than in other industrialized countries. Once a potentially useful crop plant has been developed, small scale, isolated field trials are carried out, followed by cultivation over at least one generation in a farm-scale environment. Farm-scale trials are not a regulatory requirement in many OECD countries.

Although the government is keen to press ahead with the development of GM crops, the private sector is more cautious than in other industrialized countries. Companies such as Japan Tobacco, Kirin Beer and Suntory are carrying out farm-scale trials — including virus-resistant rice and petunia — but there are no immediate plans to commercialize any of these products.

According to government sources, this is because few locally-based companies are keen to be the first to commercialize GM crops because of a fear that this could create a negative image of the company, and perhaps trigger a boycott of its products.