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How has the Fukushima nuclear crisis changed the way you buy groceries and other items? For example, are you buying more imported products than you used to?

21 Comments

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21 Comments
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It hasn't changed the way I shop one bit. I buy exactly the same things now as I did before.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

For some Items I check more careful which region they come from apart from that no changes.

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I don't trust the labels on any foodstuffs, fruit or vegetables anymore. But I have been buying Aussie beef and Canadian pork for years, anyway. Nowadays, I buy imported fruit and frozen vegetables as much as I can, and, of course, bottled water.

The real problem will be rice. It's only a matter of time before it is contaminated, though if that happens, I believe the government will cover it up. Tainted rice would be a national catastrophe and make the rice shortage of the early 1990s pale in comparison.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Never buy beef anyway. And we are careful about where things come from. But in the end, who can trust the government who have no monitoring systems in place. Your product marked A could easily be from B. This is a concern.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It is summer, so most veggies come from my garden. As for fruits, I prefer to buy the ones from Kyushu and Hokkaido. Always bought Aussie beef but make sure now that pork and chicken are foreign imports. The broccoli, cauliflower, carrots mix from Costco is the best deal you can have in winter.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Yes, my wife and I check the origin of everything and pray that at least some of it is not intentionally mislabeled. We also buy imported foods as much as possible. "Kokusan" 国産 on the label is a very helpful way to let us know it may be highly contaminated.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

We started checking the origins of all the products we buy since we do not trust that the items are checked throughly for radiation. We have not necessarily shifted to imported goods but usually try not to buy anything from affected areas.

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I still buy domestic as much as possible. I tend to like Hokkaido products so no worries at all.

I didn't buy imported before the crisis and I see no reason to buy it now, or to switch to bottled water, etc.

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Osakadaz: Agricultural and marine products are perfectly safe from Hokkaido.

http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/kz/kst/rom/English/radmat_soil_English.htm http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/kz/kst/rom/English/radmat_inmarineprod_English.htm

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Anything from north of Tokyo=no thanks!!!!!!

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

We buy food from everywhere, but are careful about what comes from the land around the devastated nuclear reactors. We've just got to trust that what we are getting is radiation-free.

I recently journeyed through the Tohoku area and noticed that the local people are buying whatever fresh products are there in their grocery stores. I guess they have no real choice. It's either buy what's there ... or go without.

While shopping in Shinjuku today my wife pointed out that the meat products now have a number on them. This number, she said, indicates which cow the meat came from. So if that cow or a herd it was part of is declared to be radiated, then we check the number on our meat and see if its from the same batch. And what if it is radiated and we've already eaten it ... and later get a number indicating radiation in the meat ... well ... too late, I guess. But it doesn't matter to me as I've already been exposed to a lot of radiation via x-rays. A little more won't hurt, I hope. As for little children ... now that's a different story ...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I buy more food from local farmers (I live pretty far from Fukushima), but haven't bought fish or sea products since the accident. We bought a lot of canned tuna just after the quake, and now my parents send us cans from Europe.Yes, and I do buy more imported food,especially for my child. I still cannot be absolutely sure if the meat branded as "imported" isn't really mislabeled.I had a fight with our local hokensho about contaminated products, they told me that the country(the government) decides what food to test for radiation.

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Hasn't affected me in the slightest.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Only imported meats and produce. I usually favoured imported stuff before the crisis but now even more so. The worry is though going to restaurants or izakaya - they will happily buy produce from anywhere as long as it is cheap.

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It might have affected me if I actually did any significant amount of cooking. I still live like a college student and subsist primarily on whey powder, canned tuna and peanut butter.

And I figure eating out a few times a week isn't going to kill me, even if that spinach is enormously irradiated.

Japan imports all its hops and barley, right?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I'm drinking 125yen/500ml "beer" from TopValue imported from Korea (BARREAL). Yummy!

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

No.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yes

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