Japan and the United States have reached a general agreement on the conditions to resume the importing of American beef to Japan. Beef imports have been suspended since the Japanese government imposed a ban on Jan. 20 after discovering that a U.S. meatpacker had violated safety rules. If everything goes smoothly, the Japanese government is likely to make a decision on the import resumption by the end of June and U.S. beef may start arriving in Japan in July.

Japan was once the most lucrative market for U.S. beef. In 2003, Japanese consumed 150 billion yen worth of American beef. But there is no guarantee that if the ban is lifted Japanese consumers, who have witnessed the fiasco that led to the second import ban in January, will become enthusiastic about American beef again.

In December 2003, Japan shut its market to U.S. beef after a Canada-born cow in the U.S. tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as mad cow disease. The import ban was lifted on Dec. 12, 2005, following a final report by the BSE panel of the Cabinet Office's Food Safety Commission. For importing to resume, the panel set two conditions: cattle slaughtered for beef export to Japan had to be less than 21 months old; and BSE-risk parts of the cow (in which prions, the infectious agents of BSE are likely to exist), such as brains and spinal cords, had to be removed.