外文文献： 生物技术在2003年在日本的态度Attitudes to biotechnology in Japan in 2003.pdfVIP

Are You suprised ? Page 1 of 22 Attitudes to biotechnology in Japan in 2003 - Masakazu Inaba and Darryl Macer Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba Science City, 305-8572, JAPAN Email: macer@biol.tsukuba.ac.jp Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 13 (2003), 78-90. I. Introduction Japan has a population of 125 million persons enjoying a relatively high standard of living internationally, being the eighth most populated nation globally. Accordingly on the FAO index of food intake Japan rates as a developed country. In 1995 there was 4.282 million ha of land under crops, so the ratio of agricultural land per person is only 0.3 ha per person, because the country is 80% mountainous. Of these crops 2 million ha is under rice. In order to feed these people most food is imported. Although some surveys of Japanese biotechnology have pointed out the relatively low importance of agricultural biotechnology when compared to agricultural exporting countries like Australasia or the United States, the increased capacity for food production from a limited area of land is of great potential benefit to Japan, where there is little agricultural land available. The government and industry has been promoting biotechnology since the 1980s. The 2002 budget related to biotechnology in Japan included 27 billion Yen from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), 128 billion yen from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW), 23 billion yen from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), 71 billion yen from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MECST), and 4 billion yen from the Ministry of Environment (Japan Bioindustry Association Figures, 2002). Given the large amount spent upon biotechnology in Japan, we can ask why almost nothing is spent discus