Jakarta Globe, Camelia Pasandaran | April 09, 2011
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The Japanese government on Saturday refused Indonesia’s request for Japan to certify exported products as radioactive free.
The press secretary director-general for Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Satoru Satoh, said that such certification was impossible and impractical — arguing that the Japanese government had already conducted tight monitoring of its exports and issued certification with products to indicate their origin.
“The Japanese government and local governments are every day monitoring the level of radioactivity in vegetables, fruit and agricultural products,” Satoh said at a press conference at the Asean building in Jakarta.
“It monitors the level of radioactivity which remains low by Japanese standard — Japanese standard is very strict in this sense. If those products register lower than the limit, they [farmers] are allowed to sell [the product] to the market. This is controlled within Japan.”
Indonesia’s Health Ministry and National Food and Drug Agency previously announced that it would only accept products from Japan that were certified by the Japanese government to be radioactive free, otherwise the products would be quarantined.
Satoh said that several countries had requested certification of origin.
“Japan is providing certification of origin so products may enter foreign countries,” he said. “We are now trying to increase radioactive monitoring to as much as possible.
“It’s quite difficult to put certification on all exported products. So [we have to rely on] a combination of data, for example, radioactivity in the atmosphere in Tokyo and in the water and soil, and certificates of origin.
“It’s quite impossible and impractical to put certificates of ‘radioactive free’ on all products.”
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