The overwhelming majority of Japanese consumers tend to buy domestic food products rather than imports, according to a Cabinet Office survey released Monday.
The finding reflects a series of incidents in which pesticides in excess of legal Japanese limits have been detected in imported Chinese vegetables, according to an office official.
To check consumer trends in daily purchases of foodstuffs, the office surveyed 2,300 designated monitors between late May and early June, with valid replies received from 2,250. Around 90.5 percent said they "usually" or "more or less usually" buy domestically produced perishable foods. The figure came to 84.2 percent for processed foods.
Asked whether prices affect the choice of domestic or imported foods, 50.1 percent said they are unaffected in the case of perishable foods and 45.2 percent for processed foods.
The survey also found 66 percent were unsatisfied with food labeling in the past year or two. Specifically, unclear reasons for the difference between regular and discount prices were cited by 51.1 percent.
Among other findings, 76.8 percent said they have changed their purchase patterns due to successive false labeling cases, with 60.4 percent shunning products made by companies that have committed labeling fraud.
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