The daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) said a government commission overseeing food safety would begin reviewing the current practice of testing all slaughtered cattle for BSE. A panel of experts is to meet later this month to discuss issues related to mad cow disease.
The government commission is reported to have invited a special adviser to the world animal health body OIE to speak on global issues related to BSE, and the Nikkei said it expected he would not be fully supportive of the blanket testing.
The US has been pressuring Japan to resume imports of American beef, halted since the discovery late last December of the United States' first case of mad cow disease. Talks have stalled over Japan's insistence that the United States follow it practice of a blanket test on all slaughtered cattle, or adopt an equivalent measure.
Washington however has refused to countenance such a move, saying that it would be too costly and not scientifically justified. However it is interesting to note that last month, a delegation of US beef processors demanded that the USDA given in to Japanese demands and begin testing all their slaughter cattle in order for them to be given a full bill of health.
US beef exporters are desperate to begin exporting again, as the ban has created a surplus of meat that has driven down prices.
However, chief veterinary officer Ron DeHaven described the industry's proposals as a means of reintroducing exports and not as a disease prevention or detection step. He said that testing all cattle was not justified because younger animals, which provide the bulk of the US beef supply, were "a population we would not expect to test positive".
However, he did indicate that the requests from meat packers were "actively under consideration". But with Japan reported rethinking its stance on compulsory testing, it is unlikely that the US will given in to Tokyo's demands.
The Japanese market as at the focus of the meat packers' attention. It was the number one market for US beef exports before an import ban was put in place following the discovery of BSE in the US. Tokyo's ban has cost the US beef industry an estimated $1 billion, while purchases from Australia have soared. A US trade delegation is due to visit Tokyo later this month to discuss the ban.
The Japanese market is highly lucrative and the country is currently running low on stocks. For example Yoshinoya, a nationwide chain that specialises in gyudon - noodles topped with strips of beef - said last month that its supplies of beef have run out, less than two months after the ban was imposed following the discovery of BSE in a cow in the state of Washington.
But the company's president, Shuji Abe, is quoted in the UK's Guardian newspaper as saying that he would not turn to Australia as an alternative supplier, as its beef "just doesn't meet the requirements for gyudon".