The health ministry plans to provide 250,000 yen to subsidize each autopsy of a person suspected to dying from sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to confirm whether they died from that or variant CJD, which is linked to mad cow disease, officials said Saturday.

An autopsy is necessary to distinguish sporadic CJD from variant CJD, which is linked to exposure, probably through eating, to cattle infected with mad cow disease, to curb the spread of the disease, the officials said.

Only 18 percent of people suspected to have died from sporadic CJD had their brains autopsied to determine the type of CJD they succumbed to, according to a ministry survey.

The survey results have spawned concerns that variant cases may have been overlooked.

A man was confirmed to have been infected with variant CJD for the first time in Japan during an autopsy in February 2005. He had initially been diagnosed as having sporadic CJD based on brain waves.

In many European countries, the autopsy rate in such cases stands at more than 70 percent. The rate is low in Japan partly due to the financial burden involved in setting up the proper facilities, the ministry officials said.

The planned subsidy, which will be covered equally by the ministry and the prefecture where each case occurs, will pay for the costs for transporting cadavers to autopsy facilities, buying the necessary materials to prevent infection and paying the coroners, the officials said.

According to the CJD surveillance commission, 490 people in Japan have died of sporadic CJD and one of variant CJD since April 1999.