Japan

The subject of biosafety was thought to be highly technical in nature, and even inside the government few were aware of its implications for Japan’s national interest. Public interest in biosafety issues began to increase dramatically in the middle of 1999, however, as the Japanese people became aware of the increasingly heated protest movements in Europe against living modified organism (LMO) products. The interest of the Japanese public in environmental issues had already been aroused by events such as the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change in December 1997 and by alarming reports in 1998 about the health effects of dioxins emitted from incinerators all over Japan. The Japanese government favoured, in principle, the setting up of an international framework to control the importation of LMO commodities. Japan wanted to facilitate the successful conclusion of the conference with a protocol arrived at by consensus.