Yoshinoya D&C Co. executives, intent on reviving the restaurant chain's trademark beef-on-rice bowls as quickly as possible, are calling U.S. meatpackers to find out how much beef they can get and at what price.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry officials are preparing to assure President George W. Bush, who meets Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Kyoto on Wednesday, that U.S. beef imports may resume as early as year's end.

For all appearances, Japan is ready to lift the nearly two-year-old ban on U.S. beef put in place when a Canadian-born holstein in Washington state tested positive for mad cow disease in December 2003.