(Yomiuri Shimbun/ANN) — The Osaka prefectural police searched the house of a man on suspicion he attempted to illegally export to China the fertilized eggs and sperm of wagyu Japanese cattle breeds (see below), The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned through people involved in the investigation.
With the brand value of wagyu Japanese beef cattle rising globally, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has launched a probe due to concern that Japan’s livestock industry will be harmed if breeding through fertilized eggs and other genetic resources spreads abroad.
According to the farm ministry and the investigation sources, the man, who is in his 60s, is suspected of attempting in July 2018 to export to China fertilized eggs and sperm from Japanese cattle breeds, via a ferry from a port in Osaka to Shanghai, without quarantine inspection. The eggs and sperm were frozen with liquid nitrogen and then put into a metallic container in an amount that would fill several hundreds of straws.
After Chinese authorities determined that he had attempted to bring the fertilized eggs and sperm into thir country without a Japanese quarantine inspection certificate, the man brought the eggs and sperm back to Japan and made a declaration at the customhouse in Osaka.
The Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases Control Law requires quarantine inspection when exporting animals, meat, eggs and the like from Japan. It stipulates that violators of the law should be subject to statutory penalties of either a maximum of 3 years in prison or a maximum fine of 1 million yen.
The ministry has filed criminal charges against the man with the Osaka police on suspicion of violating the law, marking the first time for such charges to be brought in connection with the smuggling of genetic resources out of the country.
According to informed sources, the man told police: “I was asked by an acquaintance, who runs restaurants in Japan and China, to deliver sperm and such from native Japanese cattle breeds to a Chinese person who was waiting for me in Shanghai. It was the first time I’d made a delivery like that and I didn’t know it was illegal.”
The Osaka police searched the houses of the man and his acquaintance, as well as the acquaintance’s restaurant. The police also confiscated their cell phones and computers, working to clarify how the fertilized eggs and others were obtained.
The quality of beef is influenced by its bloodline. The flesh of native Japanese beef is tender and high-quality, and has a very strong brand value mainly in Europe and North America.
According to the farm ministry, Japan’s exports of beef, including those of native Japanese cattle breeds, totaled 2,707 tons in 2017 — with a value of 19.1 billion yen — representing about threefold growth in volume over five years.
Cattle that are propagated abroad on the basis of genetic resources of Japanese beef are called “WAGYU.” Many of these WAGYU breeds of cow were produced by crossbreeding non-Japanese and Japanese stock, as genetic resources were exported legally from Japan from the 1970s through the 1990s.
More than 90 percent of WAGYU beef is reckoned to be the result of crossbreeding Japanese and non-Japanese stock, with Australia home to a total of 430,000 head of WAGYU cattle and the United States to a total of 90,000 head. Beef from crossbred cows is sometimes sold at about half the price of that from native Japanese cattle breeds in Japan.
The central government considers native Japanese cattle breeds to be a national asset, and in principle has not allowed their export since 2000. But in foreign countries, beef from hardly improved breeds of WAGYU has been appearing on the market, and some foreign companies have been trying in recent years to get in touch with officials of the livestock industry in Japan, looking for new genetic resources.
“Will you hand over genetic resources and the like from native Japanese cattle breeds?” said an email that Nihon Akaushi Touroku Kyoukai Co., a Kumamoto-based general incorporated association, received a few years ago from a livestock-related company in the United States.
An official of this organization tasked with registering Japanese cattle said with alarm: “Japanese cattle breeds are masterpieces of Japan, produced by our predecessors. Should genetic resources flow out of this country and spread abroad, the brand of Japanese cattle breeds could go into a decline.”
>> Wagyu Japanese cattle breed
Wagyu Japanese cattle breed refers to purebreds of four unique breeds: Japanese Black, Japanese Brown, Japanese Shorthorn and Japanese Polled, as well as cattle born with these breeds as parents, and bred in Japan. Calves are registered with one of three registering organizations by breed. About 400,000 head of Japanese Black, the most typical of the four breeds, are born every year, with about 70,000 head registered as breeding cattle. The remaining cattle are raised and later put on the market as Japanese beef.
