The health and farm ministries on Tuesday asked the independent Food Safety Commission to discuss whether Japan should maintain the import ban on U.S. and Canadian beef because of mad cow disease.
Deliberations by the commission are the final procedure before the government allows resumption of beef imports from the U.S. They may take place this summer.
Tokyo reached an accord with Washington last October to resume imports of beef from cattle slaughtered at 20 months of age or younger.
The commission earlier this month endorsed a recommendation that the government ease domestic blanket testing of cows for mad cow disease.
Endorsing the recommendation issued in March by a task force of experts, the commission on May 6 proposed to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry that cattle slaughtered at age 20 months or younger be excluded from tests for the bovine disease.
The task force said that even if young cattle are excluded from the test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, "a resultant increase in BSE risks in meat will be extremely low."
Specifically, the two ministries are asking the commission to study whether higher risks are associated with beef and internal organs from North American cattle, which have been slaughtered at age 20 months or younger and had high-risk materials, including brains and spinal cords, removed, than with domestic cattle.
If the safety commission reports to the ministries that the risk in North American beef would be around the same or lower than Japanese meat, imports may resume this summer, the officials said.
However, some members of the task force that endorsed easing the blanket testing are questioning the way the government asked the commission to study the mad cow risk in North American cattle.