Can't the Agriculture Ministry change? - Animal Welfare Committee met behind closed doors

Following the investigation report after a scandal in the egg industry, their first information exchange session about animal welfare was held.

As this investigation report mentions the importance of improving transparency of the government office, this is a great way to rebuild citizens’ trust in the government.

As this article explains, there was a history where some officers of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) were entertained by Akita Foods where they were incentivized to lower the bar for animal welfare standards. As a result, the officers made decisions without consulting the opinions by the committee of experts.

Despite this, the information exchange session was held behind closed doors, so the process and MAFF’s response remained unclear. Although the minutes are public, it’s just a summary of the session, not the transcript, so we don’t know who made what comments. It’s the opposite from being transparent as citizens are unable to verify the context.

It appears as though MAFF decided not to care about building citizens’ trust.

In the MAFF committee on March 16, Genki Sudo, a member of the House of Councilors, requested to disclose the next sessions, to which MAFF responded that the closed session was necessary in order to hear honest feedback.

Is this the kind of government office we want – where opinions are not open so they don’t have to be held accountable?

Of course there are so many opinions about animal welfare, but we must openly discuss them.