http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8231-4219
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Abstract
In 2008, a case of intentional food poisoning involving Chinese imported dumplings resulted in mass panic in Japan. Within a context of sensitive bilateral relations and Japanese agriculture in decline, the media were key to the enhanced risk perception among the public. To shed light on the concrete ways of risk recalibration by the media, the article compares the incident’s coverage to a strikingly similar event in 2014 involving domestic produce. Drawing on the social amplification of risk framework, a qualitative content analysis shows how the specific discursive construction of both incidents led to two different levels of risk, primarily through the framing of the incidents by references to former experiences and symbolic connotations. At the intersection of food, media and risk, the article also contributes to the understanding of perceptions of domestic as opposed to foreign or imported risks, and those in power to label these as such.
Notes
1 Rosenberger 2009; Miyoshi 2009; Nakashima 2009; Walravens 2013; Reiher 2014; O’Shea 2015.
2 Although the act of poisoning took place already at the end of 2013, the main media story broke in 2014.
3 Beck 1992.
4 Beck 1992.
5 Douglas and Wildavsky 1982; Slovic 1987.
6 Kasperson et al. 1988.
7 Wilson et al. 2014.
8 Conrad 2001.
9 E.g. Henderson et al. 2014.
10 E.g. Frewer et al. 2002.
11 Kasperson et al. 1988: 184.
12 Slovic 1987; Gardner 2008.
13 Bernard and Ryan 1998: 611–614; Mayring 2000.
14 For both newspapers, I made use of their respective databases Asahi Rekishikan and Yomidasu, 31.1.2008-1.3.2008 (gyōza) and 30.12.2013–29.1.2014 (Aqli). Page numbers given in the references are the starting pages of the article.
15 Mayring 2000.
16 In comparison, the third national daily, Mainichi Shimbun, does not even reach a circulation of 4 million copies per day. Both dailies are also the two best-selling newspapers worldwide. Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association 2015.
17 Henderson et al. 2014.
18 McCargo and Lee 2010: 241; Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association 2015.
19 MAFF 2007; Food Safety Commission 2003: 28.
20 Seward 2005.
21 Sternsdorff-Cisterna 2015.
22 MAFF 2017.
23 George Mulgan 2006: 152.
24 E.g. shokuiku (food education) or chisan chishō (local production, local consumption). For an exhaustive list of current governmental campaigns, see “Japanese Food Promotion,” http://www.maff.go.jp/e/.
25 Ohnuki-Tierney 1993: 103–104.
26 Kjaernes et al. 2007: 132–133.
27 Bosbach et al. 2014.
28 Ferguson 2010; Kimura 2011; Kojima 2011; Reiher 2014; Takeda 2008.
29 Jonker et al. 2005: 26.
30 JETRO 2011: 35.
31 Japan Times 2008.
32 JETRO 2011.
33 MHLW 2004–2015; JETRO 2011. These are the most recent detailed figures available by JETRO. The percentages are based on number of declarations, not on weight.
34 MHLW 2004–2015. Also in comparison with many other countries, Chinese imports are subject to more controls. In 2015, over 10 percent of the Chinese imports were checked for violations against the Food Safety Basic Law, as compared to e.g., 5.8 percent of the South Korean imports, and 8 percent of the US imports.
35 For more on Sino-Japanese relations, see Smith 2015.
36 Cabinet Office 2008.
37 Onami and Kawano 2007: 16-21.
38 Genron NPO 2011.
39 O’Shea 2015; Smith 2015.
40 Rosenberger 2009.
41 Miyoshi 2009.
42 Reiher 2014.
43 MHLW 2008c.
44 Asahi Shimbun 2008e: 1; MHLW 2008b.
45 Japan Frozen Food Association 2016.
46 Sasaki 2009.
47 Cabinet Office 2008.
48 Gibbs & Mizuno 2008.
49 Asahi Shimbun 2008j: 2; AERA 2008c: 14.
50 I.e. Asahi Shimbun 2008d: 11; Asahi Shimbun 2008g: 29; Yomiuri Shimbun 2008c: 35; Yomiuri Shimbun 2008d: 1; Yomiuri Shimbun 2008f; Yomiuri Shimbun 2008k: 31.
51 At that time, the hole in the packaging was not yet discovered.
52 Even the opposite was the case regarding importers and retailers: rather than questioning their role or responsibility, worries about the impact of the incident on the businesses were repeatedly mentioned. Yomiuri Shimbun 2008a: 35; Asahi Shimbun 2008b: 1.
53 I.e. Yomiuri Shimbun 2008e.
54 Asahi Shimbun 2008f: 2.
55 Shukan Asahi 2008a: 18.
56 I.e. Yomiuri Shimbun 2008i: 35.
57 Shukan Asahi 2008a: 18.
58 AERA 2008a: 14.
59 Shukan Asahi 2008a: 18.
60 AERA 2008c: 14; AERA 2008d: 21; Shukan Asahi 2008b: 21; Yomiuri Weekly 2008: 24.
61 Asahi Shimbun 2008f: 2.
62 E.g., Mainichi Shimbun 2007; Onami and Kawano 2007. Not all of these have been one-sidedly “against” China. AERA, for example, brings up the responsibility of Japan in the problems related to Chinese imports, referring to a.o. the increasing yield pressure and the “outsourcing” of their use of antibiotics in food production. Also see Walravens 2017.
63 AERA 2008a: 21; AERA 2008c: 14; Yomiuri Shimbun 2008a: 35.
64 AERA 2008c: 14.
65 Yomiuri Shimbun 2008b.
66 Asahi Shimbun 2008a: 25; AERA 2008b: 23–24.
67 Asahi Shimbun 2008e: 1; Shukan Asahi 2008b: 21; Yomiuri Shimbun 2008j: 18.
68 Ivy 1996.
69 Farrer and Nakano 2008.
70 AERA 2008a: 21.
71 AERA 2008b: 23–24.
72 Asahi Shimbun 2008b: 1; Yomiuri Shimbun 2008b.
73 Reiher 2014.
74 I.e. Asahi Shimbun 2008h.
75 Asahi Shimbun 2008g: 29.
76 Asahi Shimbun 2008i: 13.
77 Asahi Shimbun 2009: 11, 29; Asahi Shimbun 2010: 12.
78 MHLW 2013; Yomiuri Shimbun 2013a.
79 I. e. Yomiuri Shimbun 2014a; MHLW 2008a.
80 Yomiuri Shimbun 2014d.
81 Yomiuri Shimbun 2013b.
82 Asahi Shimbun 2013a: 35.
83 Asahi Shimbun 2014f: 39.
84 Asahi Shimbun 2014g: 39.
85 Yomiuri Shimbun 2014c: 39.
86 Yomiuri Shimbun 2014c: 39.
87 Asahi Shimbun 2014f: 39.
88 Asahi Shimbun 2014a: 29; Asahi Shimbun 2014b: 37; Yomiuri Shimbun 2013d.
89 Asahi Shimbun 2013b: 35.
90 Yomiuri Shimbun 2014b: 6.
91 Asahi Shimbun 2014e: 39.
92 Yomiuri Shimbun 2013c: 27.
93 Yomiuri Shimbun 2014c: 39.
94 Yomiuri Shimbun 2013b: 27.
95 Asahi Shimbun 2013a: 35.
96 Stersndorff-Cisterna 2015.
97 An exception is Asahi Shimbun 2013b: 35.
98 Even the scandal-ridden history of Aqlifoods’ original mother company, Snow Brand Milk Products (Yukijirushi), is only mentioned twice during that first month of reporting. Asahi Shimbun 2013a: 35.
99 Rowe et al. 2000.
100 Yomiuri Shimbun 2008g: 39; Yomiuri Shimbun 2008h: 34.
101 In an interview with the author in 2016, also Kojima Masami, a renowned food journalist for the Mainichi Shimbun, referred to the dumpling incident as Japan’s first food terrorism case, explaining the heightened media attention.
102 Slovic 1987; Kasperson et al. 1988.
103 Department of Health UK 1998.
104 AERA 2014.
105 Asahi Shimbun 2008c: 2.
106 Kepplinger 2002.
107 See Kimura 2016.