At Beijing's request, Japan refrained from divulging that China suffered a food poisoning outbreak from pesticide-tainted "gyoza" dumplings made by the same firm whose frozen gyoza sickened people in Japan, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura admitted Thursday.
"It is a fact that (the Foreign Ministry) was informed" of the incidents in China by early July, Komura admitted during an interview.
The Foreign Ministry had been criticized when media reports revealed Wednesday that it had sat on the information for a month, including that the pesticide in both nations' outbreaks was the same.