American beef will be back on Japanese tables soon, but making finicky and cowardly Japanese consumers stomach it will not be an easy task. After two days of teleconference negotiations, Japan and the United States struck a final deal on Wednesday on lifting Tokyo's import ban on American beef. Under the agreement, which provides for strengthened safeguard measures against mad cow disease, Japan will begin necessary procedures to reopen its once-lucrative market to US beef and thereby remove the largest irritant to otherwise smooth bilateral trade relations. (Asia Times ^[1], Thursday)

What would the Japanese do without their government's protection?

FEE Timely Classic
We Can Do Better than Government Inspection of Meat ^[2] by E. C. Pasour, Jr.