Disguise - Gisou

Japanese: 偽装 - ぎそう

2007 was a year of food fraud, with "fake" (false) being chosen as the "Kanji of the Year" for 2007, which is announced at the end of each year at Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto. Incidentally, "fake" received 16,550 votes out of a total of 90,816 votes, nearly seven times as many as the runner-up "food" (food). In January 2007, an internal whistleblower exposed the fact that Fujiya, a Western-style confectionery company, was using expired milk to make cream puffs at its Saitama factory, forcing the company to stop selling Western-style confectionery. In August, it was discovered that the expiration date of a popular Hokkaido souvenir, "Shiroi Koibito" (manufactured by Ishiya Seika), had been falsified, and sales of this product were also suspended. Also, in October, Meat Hope, a meat processing and sales company in Hokkaido, was arrested for violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act (false representation) for years of fraudulent practices, such as manufacturing beef mince mixed with chicken meat and innards and passing off foreign products as domestic, on the orders of President Tanaka himself. Furthermore, the problem of fraud has even affected long-established businesses, and in October it was discovered that expiration dates had been falsified for Akafuku, a specialty of Ise. The practice of freezing excess or unsold products and then changing the shipping date to the production date when thawing and shipping them out was deemed to be fraudulent labeling, and sales were suspended. Also, at the end of October, a food labeling fraud problem was discovered at Senba Kitcho (Osaka, Fukuoka), a part of the famous restaurant Kitcho group, where beef from Kyushu, an ingredient of the restaurant, was falsely labeled as brand beef such as Sanda beef or Tajima beef, leading to the suspension of business and some changes to the management team. Both cases called into question the spirit of corporate compliance (compliance with laws and regulations).

(Tatsuo Inamasu, Professor, Hosei University / 2008)

Source : "Chiezo" published by Asahi Shimbun Publications Co., Ltd. About Chiezo

Japanese:

毎年末に京都・清水寺で発表される「2007年の漢字」に「偽」が選ばれるなど、2007年は食品偽装問題が相次いだ年だった。ちなみに「偽」は、投票総数9万816票のうち1万6550票を集め、2位の「食」の7倍近い数字であった。 07年1月に洋菓子の不二家埼玉工場で消費期限切れの牛乳を使ってシュークリームを製造していたことが内部告発され、洋菓子の販売中止に追い込まれた。8月に北海道の人気土産品「白い恋人」(石屋製菓製造)で賞味期限改ざんが発覚し、こちらも販売を中止した。また10月に、同じ北海道の食肉加工販売会社ミートホープが、長年にわたって、鶏肉や内臓などを混入した牛ミンチを製造したり、外国産を国産と偽るなどの不正を続けており、それが田中社長自らの指示によるということで、不正競争防止法違反(虚偽表示)で逮捕された。さらに、偽装問題は歴史ある老舗にも及んでおり、10月に伊勢名物の「赤福」で消費期限改ざんが発覚した。余分に製造した商品や売れ残りの商品を冷凍保存し、解凍して出荷する際に、その出荷日を製造年月日にするという「まき直し」が偽装表示と見なされ、販売中止となった。また、10月末に有名料亭「吉兆」グループの「船場吉兆」(大阪、福岡)で、商品の原材料である九州産牛肉を「三田牛」や「但馬牛」というブランド牛と偽るなどの食品表示偽装問題が発覚し、営業を自粛し、経営陣を一部改変した。いずれも、企業のコンプライアンス(法令順守)の精神が問われた事件であった。

(稲増龍夫法政大学教授／ 2008年)

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