The Democratic Party of Japan lashed out at the government Tuesday for suppressing information for a month that China had suffered a food poisoning outbreak from pesticide-tainted frozen "gyoza" dumplings, just like Japan had from the same source.
A DPJ task force submitted a petition to the prime minister's office demanding that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda clarify why he followed the Foreign Ministry's decision to sit on the news, at Beijing's request, and justify how he can call his Cabinet consumer-oriented. The government confirmed the incident after the media broke the story.
The Foreign Ministry admitted it was told by China in July that four Chinese had suffered food poisoning in June by eating pesticide-tainted gyoza made by the same company that had caused the Japan outbreak in January. Reports said the tainted gyoza had been recalled and then reintroduced onto the market.