Methamidophos is so toxic that it has been prohibited to sell it in Japan as a pesticide. It was prohibited also in China several years ago. But farmers in China still have stock of the pesticide, and some of them are still using it for agriculture.

The gyoza were packed in plastic bags in China, then the gyoza in the plastic bags were packed in cardboard boxes. The cardboard boxes are then sealed with adhesive tapes. The sealed cardboard boxes were put into containers, and the containers were locked in China. The containers were shipped to Kanagawa, Hyogo and Osaka. The containers were unlocked in each port. The gyoza containing methamidophos caused toxicoses in Kanto and Kansai areas. The gyoza in Kanto area and Kansai area had been unloaded in Kanagawa and Osaka, respectively. If methamidophos was added in Japan, someone had to add it both in Kanto area (near Kanagawa) and in Kansai area (near Osaka).

As long as I have read Japanese news reports, they have been just reporting facts and possibilities.

As for the Chinese dumplings containing cardboard, many Japanese media reported that the story was false. But I don’t know whether there were any minor news media that had run the false story but did not report that it was false, since I didn’t check all of the news media in Japan.

The Japanese media widely ran the false story about the cardboard but did not run a retraction after the story was shown to be false.

Are you sure about that? I remember following the cardboard dumpling story, and I think the TV networks I watched reported afterwards that the story had been false. My memory could be wrong, though.

Who stands to gain from poisoning Chinese Gyoza?
-Japanese food producers
-disgruntled (rich)employee with access to a farm
-rich)employee with access to a farm who is prejudice to the Japanese

Where was the poisoning done?
-In Japan, the evidence comes from the victims as well as the punctured bags of gyoza showing they were tampered with after they were sealed.
-In China the Gyoza may have been sprayed before it was packed into boxes and sent to Japan. However the Gyoza tested was returned form stores and not opened from new boxes.

So who would be in Japan, have the ability and stand to gain from poisoning Chinese food?
- Japanese agribusiness with access to the gyoza
- Angry Chinese employee with access to pesticides and the gyoza.

Last summer there was a story about Chinese dumplings containnig cardboard. This story ended up was a fake created by a Chinese TV employee Zi Beijia. Still many people(myself included) were lead to believe that this story was true and are relating it to the Gyoza story.
The Japanese media widely ran the false story about the cardboard but did not run a retraction after the story was shown to be false.

So who is benefitting from this latest food poisoning?
Japense agrobusiness is. They have the means, motive, and media support.

The problem is that Japan depends lots of food(61%) and energy(90%) resources on overseas. Therefore, for the time being Japan couldn’t stop importing food from China.

For example, let’s say I’m the president of Apple. I decide to use a Chinese company to produce my xPods. After production starts I find out that my xPods spray battery acid in the faces of users as a result of cost cutting and using a cheaper kind of plastic. At this point I would find it pretty strange to suddenly blame China for not having higher standards in regard to manufacturing standards. As the president of Apple, I need reevaluate how *my* company’s factories are operating and improve standards so problems like this don’t occur.

Why should they enforce, for example, american work practices on a Chinese company. The laws for work practices of a particular company are the responsibility of that countries government.

Obviously they would be better off (safety wise) abandoning cheap labor to produce things domestically. However, this is an economic issue and I can guarantee you that, no matter what, these distributors are trying to save a buck and will continue to use Chinese factories. Why do you think there have been so many food related scandals lately? Japanese companies are selling food as though it was home-grown, but in reality the food is still being made/grown in China. They are trying to save money and make it seem like the food is safe.

China is sweating over this issue, as it will take a hit on exports, and the government is actively looking into the issue.

Oh, and I have a new survey on Chinese quality:

http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/01/31/what-japan-thinks-of-chinese-products/