農水省腐敗

(Mainichi Japan) September 23, 2008
Regulator tip-offs defeat purpose of safety inspections
発信箱：何も変わらない＝玉木研二

Some baffling facts are emerging over how the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries conducts its inspections -- specifically, giving companies warning in advance.
　汚染米問題は農水省の不可解な検査実態を露呈した。

Giving advance warning of inspections is like a pitcher warning a runner on base that he's going to throw a pickoff. He has no chance of getting the runner out; no, it's as if the pitcher doesn't even want to get him out.
予告するとは、野球なら「投げるぞう」と塁上走者に知らせてけん制球を投げるのと同じ。刺せるわけがない、いや、ハナから刺す気がない。

Think back 40 years. In the Kanemi-oil PCB poisoning scandal, where polychlorinated biphenyls were mixed in with rice bran oil, there were vast numbers of chickens dying on poultry farms months before reports of humans falling ill.
　ちょうど４０年前。ＰＣＢ（ポリ塩化ビフェニール）使用の熱媒体が製造工程の米ぬか油に混入したカネミ油症事件は、人体被害が広がる数カ月前、養鶏の大量死を起こした。

When it was discovered that cooking oil used to create their feed was the cause, the ministry went down to their factory in Kitakyushu to perform an inspection, since animal feed is part of their jurisdiction. But after the operator told them the oil was "OK," they simply left it at that.
食用工程から派生した油が用いられたエサが原因と分かり、飼料を所管する当時の農林省が北九州の工場に立ち入り検査していた。だが、食用油の方は「大丈夫」という業者の説明でそのままにした。

If, at the time, the Farm Ministry had contacted the then-Ministry of Health and Welfare, which was in charge of food hygiene, asked it to have a look -- just to be on the safe side -- the contamination could have been confirmed, and the damage to humans limited. However, they say that they were just staying within their jurisdiction.
　もしその時、農林省が自ら踏み込まずとも食品衛生を所管する厚生省（当時）に「念のため調べるべきだ」と速やかに連絡し、省を超えて徹底調査をしていたら、食用油の汚染も判明し、人体被害は相当回避できたはずだ。ところが、彼らは「所管」と「権限」の中で忠実に職務を果たしたというのである。

In Akira Kurosawa's "Ikiru," the protagonist is a local bureaucrat hopelessly dedicated to his job yet stricken with an incurable disease. Making a fresh start, he vows to "stand first for the people, and go the extra mile as a bureaucrat, working beyond his jurisdiction."
　黒沢明監督の映画「生きる」は、ひたすら無遅刻無欠勤を守るだけの無気力な市役所課長が主人公だ。不治の病が彼を「市民のため先頭に立ち、縄張りを超えて働く役人」に生まれ変わらせる。だが、現実の役人世界が生まれ変わることは相当難儀らしい。

At his funeral, his boss remarks smugly: "That's the kind of thing someone who knows nothing about local government would say." His fellow desk jockeys nod their assent.
　「そんなこと言ったって、キミ、それは役所の機構を知らない素人の言うことであってね」。映画の葬式のシーン。市役所の幹部がしたり顔で言い、周囲がうなずく。

The film was made in 1952. So much time has passed, yet the reality has not lost its color, because nothing much has changed. (Column by Kenji Tamaki, Expert Senior Writer, Mainichi Shimbun Editorial Board)
　１９５２年の作品。リアリティーが色あせないのはこれほど長い時が流れても何も変わっていないということだ。（論説室）

毎日新聞　2008年9月23日　2時32分