Safe to eat fish and vegetables in Tokyo?

Safe to eat fish and veg in Tokyo?

Why not? Because of radiation concerns? Most foods are not affected by the nuclear accident. Some foods are found to have slightly heightened levels, and they are kept from distribution. So it is extremely unlikely that you will ever encounter any contaminated food. But even if you were to eat contaminated food, it would have no influence on your health, unless you would consume the contaminated food regularly over a long period of time. Overly fatty and salty foods as well as alcohol pose a much bigger risk to one's health.

Thanks for that! So, there's practically no need to worry about being able to tell restaurants that sell food that has been controlled from restaurants that sell everything? Do I need to look out for special tags on products in S/M for example? And one last thing, have you as a local or anybody else for that matter changed your eating habits since March? In Europe news is coming in all the time through official channels that new instances of beef having consummed radiated food are coming to light and the japanese government or officials are not to be trusted entirely. This all makes me a bit skeptic about eating freely in Japan, which of course counts for almost 50% of the whole trip. I hope this does not sound at all unreasonable. Thanks in advance, Uji..

So, there's practically no need to worry about being able to tell restaurants that sell food that has been controlled from restaurants that sell everything?

Food is being screened and kept from distribution before they reach restaurants. But again, even contaminated foods do not pose a risk if consumed only once or a few times. Just like with fatty foods and alcohol, you have to consume them regularly in large amounts over long time periods in order for them to cause an increased cancer risk.

Do I need to look out for special tags on products in S/M for example?

No, there are no such tags. Contaminated foods are not supposed to reach supermarkets.

And one last thing, have you as a local or anybody else for that matter changed your eating habits since March?

My household is trying to support the Tohoku Region by purchasing food products from there. The radiation issue, however, has not made me change food habits, at all. I am convinced that regular chemicals used on domestic produce and my daily beer have a far worse effect on my health than the slightly contaminated food products that do not make it onto my plates.

And tomorrow I will be on board of an airplane for 14 hours and will be exposed to 3 months worth the radiation that I get from living here in Japan. But I don't care, because such radiation levels do not increase the risk of cancer. You need much more radiation in order for your health to get affected. I recommend to read some more about the basics of radiation and effects on humans. Then you will soon understand that most of what is happening right now is hysteria.

It is a different matter for babies and young children living in eastern Fukushima Prefecture. If people there are worried about radiation, it is understandable. But for adult short term visitors to Tokyo there is no need for worries.

In Europe news is coming in all the time through official channels that new instances of beef having consummed radiated food are coming to light and the japanese government or officials are not to be trusted entirely.

So far, I have heard only of a single case of contaminated beef being consumed before the contamination was discovered. However, I would not be surprised if there were quite a few other instances, as well. What the sensationalist media often omits is the fact that the consumption of that beef has no effect on human health, whatsoever, unless it is consumed repeatedly and in large amounts over a long period of time.

I have much more trust in the Japanese government than the European media. Over the past four months, the European media has displayed very poor journalism and a very high level of sensationalism when it comes to the Japan issue. Combined with attempts to use the Japan disaster for their political, anti-nuclear purposes. I recommend to be at least as sceptical towards the media than towards the Japanese government. The latter ultimately cares about the well being of its people. The former only cares about reader numbers and financial profits and does not mind that their irresponsible sensationalism causes Japan even more damage.

I disagree with Uji.
Whilst there are some sensationalist articles in European media there are many that just explain facts without sensationalism.
Japanese media is somewhat controlled by the Japanese government which explains some of the differences in reporting. It is easy to think European newspapers are sensationalist if they don't fit with what you are being told.
Japanese government is very closely tied up with business and often economic priorities affect decision making more than it should.
I believe there is a lot of business protectionism going on in government. And Japanese government does not have a good track record of dealing with public health when business is involved.
To understand this have a look at minimata disease...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease
to see how Japanese government dealt with public health.

Hay contaminated with as much as 690,000 becquerels a kilogram, compared with a government safety standard of 300 becquerels, has been fed to cattle. Beef with unsafe levels of the radioactive element was detected in four prefectures.

I buy lots of imported food since I cannot trust the governments ability to handle the situation any more, and I know more and more Japanese feel the same. Lots of my Japanese co workers stopped eating beef this week when we eat lunch together.
But If you don't live here, Uji is right that you don't need to worry too much...I am worried about diet over a long period of time.
Ingesting radioactive material is very different to exposure like an X ray or a flight...it accumulates inside your body over time and years later you might get health problems.
Uji says it is no problem if you only eat radioactive material once or twice, well we live in Japan...I don't know about you but I eat every day, How can we know how many times we have eaten radioactive food and at what level?

Sampsonite,

The issue on radiation and food has been discussed on this forum before and all you have to do is to search keywords for threads. So I'm just sort of repeating it all, but here goes.

Long story short, I don't think the government is lying, but at the same time they're not doing a very good job on this issue. But then, I can't really blame everything on them. This is something no one has experienced, plus there just isn't enough tools and manpower to monitor/organize everything.

For example, contaminated beef is being found even in Matsusaka (and is officially announced) because the cattle was fed on contaminated hay that had leaked accidentally. At the same time, from Chernobyl we have learned that a small amount or less frequent consumption of radioactive substances won't affect humans (although infants and the unborn are more sensitive).

So it's all a matter of how much you want to avoid "accidents" and how much amount or frequency you want to consider as "risks." For example, a friend who lives in Fukushima says she tries not to feed her teenagers with Fukushima products although the parents consume whatever is sold. I think that's important, in a way, because in Fukushima you also have to consider the air contamination you are exposed to.

Either way, you are free to avoid anything you want, and what you chose not to avoid is what you "believe" in. Some may prefer to believe in renowned brands as they honor reputation. Some may prefer to believe in organic restaurants as they honor good farming. There are also restaurants who deliberately serve and support Fukushima products while posting charts proving that all producers they handle personally monitor their own products.

And mind you, as soon as the society widely discovers something new, either the government or municipal does work on it. For example, only a few out of many cattles had been tested up until recently, but prefectures up north (Miyagi, Yamagata, Akita, Niigata) has decided to test every single cattle they sell as meat.
http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20110726ddm041040060000c.html

have you as a local or anybody else for that matter changed your eating habits since March?

I eat and have been eating every single thing that is served to me outside my house, meaning at restaurants and friends' homes. So does my teenager.

At home, I buy from an organization that says they've started monitoring all their vegetables. I also buy almost any tasty-looking vegetable in which the farmer's name is open to public. That way, I know where it's coming from, and plus, good-looking fresh products tend to have good nutrition, and good nutrition will help you build a healthy body that can fight radiation.

Also not that when making your order to eat or buy something, you don't have to hesitate to ask where it's coming from. Everyone understands your anxiety. For example, a shop I always buy from would gladly research if I ask where each vegetable from their mixed pickles are coming from. Or when I'm standing at a shop thinking if I should buy a piece of fish, the shopkeeper would tell me it's from a certain place in the south, and that would make me feel easier.

But then, what can you trust? The media is all about Fukushima at the moment keeping an eye on them, but we can't forget the fact that there are nuke plants all over the world which people don't even pay attention to. And there are lots of polution or fraud or what not going on, and we can't really say that just because a piece of food is from another certain country it's safe.

All in all what I believe in is to maintain health rather than to avoid risks.

By the way, I don't understand what "special tags on products in S/M" are. What is "S/M"?

Sorry for the typo in my previous message.

Incorrect:
Also not that when making your order

Correct:
Also note that when making your order

Whilst there are some sensationalist articles in European media there are many that just explain facts without sensationalism.

I made the experience that even some serious newspapers did some very bad journalism following the March 11 earthquake. Of course, there are exceptions. The German speaking area, where opposition to nuclear power is particularly strong, was particularly bad, because the disaster was additionally widely abused for political purposes.

Japanese media is somewhat controlled by the Japanese government which explains some of the differences in reporting.

Nonsense! NHK stands close to the government, but the other TV stations, newspapers, sports newspapers, weekly magazines, etc. are just as independent as their counterparts in Europe. And many Japanese TV stations, sports newspapers and weekly magazines are just as sensationalist and irresponsible as some of the media overseas. That explains why there are so many unnecessarily hysteric people also inside of Japan.

Japanese government is very closely tied up with business and often economic priorities affect decision making more than it should. I believe there is a lot of business protectionism going on in government.

I completely agree. But I doubt that the government would go as far as exposing half of Japan's population to radioactivity levels that pose a serious health risk. That sounds more like a conspiracy theory to me.

And Japanese government does not have a good track record of dealing with public health when business is involved.
To understand this have a look at minimata disease...

It is absurd to compare the 2011 government under the Democratic Part with the 1960 LDP sinners. Fortunately, the situation in that respect has improved dramatically - although it is certainly still not perfect.

Beef with unsafe levels of the radioactive element was detected in four prefectures.

This article explains a little bit about how "unsafe" the recently detected beef is:
http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/07/23/radioactive-beef-in-japan-should-...

Ingesting radioactive material is very different to exposure like an X ray or a flight...it accumulates inside your body over time and years later you might get health problems.

That might be true for strontium (which fortunately has not been spread too widely), but I don't think it is true for cesium. Although it has a half life of 30 years, cesium is eliminated from the human body within a few weeks. Nor does it accumulates in any particular area of the body. I don't think it is very different from radiation from outside of the body.

Thank you all for your contributions!
(S/M stands for Supermarket)

I think the quality of investigative journalism is very poor in Japan. I see political interviews on TV and it makes me want to laugh...it is basically just a platform to read out their views in public. The interviewer is not even slightly motivated to ask probing questions.
Not only this, all major newspapers seem to have the same political stance there is less variety of opinions being discussed.
The government are rarely subject to difficult situations like a televised live debate for example where the dialogue is unrehearsed/unscripted. There are also many subjects which have a media black out. For example the around the immigration detention centers..when someone died earlier this year whilst being deported because immigration workers put a towel down his throat and used excessive force. It was reported by many english language newspapers but strangely not in Japan. Or about how JITCO (a government organisation) help companies import cheap labour from Asia and how the United Nations and American government have publicly condemned this as as tantamount to government assisted human trafficking and slavery.
But I am getting away from the issue...
basically I do not see that Japanese government has changed since the 1960s in its attitude towards publicising information and protecting its ties with business. I think government still thinks in terms of containing information to prevent political and economical damage.
Yes this probably happens in Europe to some extent too...but Japan is a particularly bad example.
The other thing is as you say...this situation is unprecedented and they face a very very difficult task to monitor and check all food produce is a major operation...for any government this would be a difficult task, but with the changing of PMS every five minutes and the general disorganisation and lack of skill on display from Japanese government...I am concerned if they are capable of managing the situation.
They didn't even have the foresight to think cows might eat hay? and then the whole radioactive checking thing is a shambles. There is no centralised system to manage the radioactive monitoring and also deliver information to the public from a single source.

Sampsonite,

Supermarkets and other shops almost always show the area the product comes from, usually in the form of prefecture names. Refer to the following thread and read my post as of 2011/6/14 21:58 for more details.
http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+83659

On a related note, due to the various diseases that beef has caused around the world in the past, beef is now "tracable." As an example, look at the following picture.
http://www.e-meat.jp/trace/

Next to the number "58" it says "Wakasa-gyu Sirloin Steak." "Wakasa" is another name for the Fukui Prefecture area (at the bottom it says "Fukui City").

Under "58" you will see the reference number "1001932048." By taking time and professionally searching this number, this piece of meat can be traced down to the farm it comes from.

But again, I wouldn't worry too much about it if you're consuming products here in Japan for just a few weeks or so.

I think the quality of investigative journalism is very poor in Japan. I see political interviews on TV and it makes me want to laugh...

And I think you have only a limited understanding of the Japanese media and language and wish you would be more modest and less condescending about voicing your opinions.

Well, a Japanese friend of mine sent this in his most recent email:

"The contamination caused by radiation is more troublesome than saving electricity.Vegetables, meat, and fish around the nuclear power plant are showing more radiation than the defined value, they announced. It makes us more nervous about where they come from when we buy in the supermarket."

But that's all I know of it to be honest. Whether his concerns are based on specific information or hearsay, I can't tell you.

K's information doesn't contradict at all with official announcements or NHK and neither does it contradict with my concerns.

(By the way, I've been saving energy almost all my life, so nothing has changed for me on that level.)

I don't find Gilesdesign answers to be in the least bit condescending, Uji. Just because he has a different opinion to you. I always enjoy reading his(?) down to earth and sensible comments on this site and I wish that more contributors were as open minded and reasonable when posting as he. Thanks :)

I find a lot of gilesdesign's comments to reek of ignorance in regards to Japan and Japanese culture. It's not so much an opinion as it is a criticism of Japan for not being as "liberal" or "outspoken" as the UK. Japanese culture and society will always be quite different from that of Europe, and requires foreigners (especially from Western countries such as gilesdesign and myself) to adjust their paradigm. Frankly, if gilesdesign has such a negative view of Japan, I don't know why he continues to live there -- he would be much better off (and happier) living back in Europe than to change a Japanese culture wanting to be different.

Alright, I agree I am the one who was overreacting this time. Let's get back to the topic now.

You completely misunderstand me. This is a very specific discussion about Japanese
government media in relation to domestic food crisis. Nowhere did I say anything about disliking Japan.
For your information, I love Japan and I love living here so please do not judge if
I should live here or not, you know nothing about me.
I would not want Japan to be the same as UK.
The UK has its own very different problems to do with New Corporation and the UK government right now and I am equally critical of this.
I have heard your view a million times before.... gaijin should just shut up and just accept japan is different culture.
Well no, I think we should celebrate the good aspects of Japan and speak up when something is wrong, just the same as
the Japanese people we live alongside....this is what you should be doing wherever you live in the world.
I dont understand why my view is condescending...perhaps because I am not Japanese?... I pay taxes, Japan is my home.
so I have a right to be critical just the same as anyone else.

will not eat beef for many months. and some other foods. I'm Japanese and all my friends say no, no, no. We not trust Japan govenment and news. We ate bad meat because it is July and earthquake is March. I'm sorry for child's school lunch. Why do they take so long?

This conversation has nothing to do about Japan being good vs. bad and foreigner vs. Japanese. As a matter of fact, I believe that a lot of the Japanese media is as sensationalist and irresponsible about the radiation issue as the foreign media.

And I don't care whether Gilesdesign is foreigner or Japanese. It is his condescending style that has been bothering me not only in this but other threads. But I will try to keep calm from now.

My point remains that I am just as sceptical - if not more sceptical - about what I hear in the media versus what the government decides. I believe the government does its best to solve the crisis in a way that is best for the country. This ultimately means that they put the health of the population at a very high priority. But it is clear that this does not go without failures and mistakes. The government can't control every single bundle of hey, and many of the problems encountered are first-time events in Japanese history. It is only natural that lots of mistakes are made and that some contaminated foods slip through.

What bothers me the most is the lack of scientific understanding and the hysteria among the population. It is here where most of the media readily adds fuel to the hysteria with sensationalist reports instead of easy-to-understand, scientific explanations.

And it is not the first time it happened. It has been the same with the swine flu, the recent yukke incident and so many more past incidents were the media fuels hysteria with sensationalism, thereby causing even more damage than would be necessary, due to the irrational overreaction by the common people.

Try to educate yourself just about the very basics of radiation. Listen to the experts and don't just consume the sensationalist media reports.