Japan against ban

Japan did not impose a blanket ban on US beef imports, despite the discovery of a spinal column in a meat shipment from an American processing plant.

Japan temporarily halted beef shipments from a US plant after finding the spinal column, which violated a trade accord prohibiting parts believed to pose a risk of mad cow disease.

But Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told the Associated Press the violation apparently was an isolated case, and Tokyo would not retaliate by blocking all beef shipments from the US "We understand this is not a systematic problem concerning US exports to Japan and there is no need to impose an import ban," he told reporters.