Introduction
This document is composed of the juridical and regulatory systems on food safety and food quality in Japan and some the comparison with those in the EU and the USA, focusing on those after the fundamental reform caused by the apparition of the BSE in Japan in 2001.
Since the end of the Pacific War, the Food Sanitation Law and the JAS Law have controlled the safety and quality of food for many years. The incidence of the BSE was the decisive trigger to restructuring the existing juridical and administrative systems in Japan. This document describes the back ground of the reform of the present systems and the contents of the new structure of the related laws and the administration. The risk analysis was adopted as the basic principle in the Food safety Basic Law that was newly established, and also the traceability was introduced. However, the Japanese law has not made clear its views on the precautionary principle in the legislation. Following the principle of “the farm to the table” adopted, laws related to materials for agricultural and livestock industries, like pesticides, feed, veterinary drugs were revised.