Japan will provide an English-language summary of the deliberations of its expert panel on beef safety to obtain U.S. understanding of Tokyo's position, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Tuesday.
"We will also provide information (about Japan's position over the issue) appropriately through various occasions such as seminars," Machimura told his regularly scheduled news conference.
Machimura said the Food Safety Commission and the Foreign Ministry will provide the summary in English of what was discussed among commission members to scientifically verify the safety of U.S. beef.
Yoshinobu Shimamura, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, told a separate news conference, "It is important to make American people understand" Tokyo's position because some in the United States seem to misinterpret Japan's slow work as a tactic to delay resuming U.S. beef imports.
The plan was revealed after Machimura and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice failed Saturday to bridge the gap over a U.S. call to resume imports of U.S. beef from cattle aged 20 months or younger.