伊藤忠商事株式会社社长    岡藤正广

前言：

我由衷地祝贺中国成长为在国际社会中具有压倒性影响力的经济大国。作为中国的邻邦，日本曾经历了今天中国走过的所有的路，我作为一名日本的企业家想借此机会，为北京市的发展乃至中国的健康发展尽一些绵薄之力，直言不讳地阐述以下具体提案。

提案内容：

我的提案主旨是：通过保证放心、安全的食品来打造让世界信任的、放心和安全的北京。

中国在近20年间迅速获取了世界工厂和世界市场的地位，并发展成为GDP居世界第二位的国家。然而在发展的同时，各种严重的问题和矛盾也随之产生，中国政府也深刻意识到了这一点。温家宝总理在此前3月份的全国人民代表大会上强调了要保障食品安全，进一步加强对违法、不良从业者的监管。对此日本媒体也进行了大规模的报道。我们认为如果不能让国民感到放心、安全，中国政治经济的稳定持续发展就不可能实现。食品安全是关乎国民幸福的根本问题，是建设和谐社会的不可或缺的重要课题。

具体提案:

20世纪50年代以后的60多年间，日本在推进经济全球化的过程中，在兼顾全球化和本土化的同时，政府和民间共同构建起了世界第一的食品安全体系。日本食品的安全和放心让作为日本人的我们感到非常自豪，我们也将其视为“日本”这一品牌的价值之一。在这里，我想就放心和安全谈一下我的看法。“安全”是一个可以从科学角度来验证的问题。与此相对，“放心”则是关乎“心”的问题，简单地说就是“信任”的问题。对于现在的北京市民来说，在生活中“安全”是可以用钱买到的，但如果政府、企业和市民不能融为一体共同努力，“放心”是买不到的。市民如果不能感到放心，对社会就会有不满情绪，这种情绪如果蔓延，就一定会对中国经济的发展乃至世界的发展产生消极的影响。在此我想先介绍一下对于食品安全问题日本政府和民间共同努力的过程，之后阐述我的具体提案。

在经济发展的同时，日本社会的城市化进程得以快速推进，耕地的减少和粮食自给率严重偏低成为一个社会问题，且这一社会问题至今存在。日本的粮食自给率按生产量来计算的话为69%，而按卡路里计算的话仅为39%。由于日本国民的餐桌依赖于海外，为了保证国民的安全、让国民感到放心，日本的政府和企业长年以来一直坚持不懈地努力着，努力的程度令人动容。食品的价值链由农业生产者、食品加工业和流通业构成，在这个价值链上的所有食品相关行业都在同样的标准下进行自我约束的同时，日本政府也会与时俱进地改善其行政指导和管理政策。长达半个世纪以来，日本就是这样在政府和民间的共同努力下构建了食品安全体系。要让人们感到“放心”，首先是要确保“安全”。对于从原料到最终制成品的可追溯性技术，日本保持着世界最高水平。

接下来介绍两个有关“日本标准”为中国食品安全事业作贡献的实际案例，最后是提出关于中日两国政府和民间共同发展食品安全事业的方案。

一个是制造业的例子，另一个是流通业的例子。前者是关于冷冻食品。上世纪80年代，由于日元升值，日本企业纷纷将生产基地迁至海外。那时日本冷冻食品行业将日本的生产标准、生产制造技术和品质管理的手册严格地传授给他们在中国的合作企业，中国企业也进行了不懈的努力。也可以说中国冷冻食品行业的标准是在参考了日本冷冻食品标准的基础上制订出来的，这是我们的一项成果。山东省的龙大食品集团有限公司是中国最大的冷冻食品出口企业，伊藤忠商事从它成立之初就与之进行合作，现在龙大的食品安全检查部门也承揽了中国出入境检验检疫局（CIQ）委托的检验业务，我们对此深感自豪。

还有一个例子，即零售业界7＆I集团的量贩店——华堂商场。在日本，食品的产品信息、生产商信息等都会对消费者公开，以维护消费者食用安全放心食品的权利。在我公司的推动下成为第一家进入中国市场的外资零售店铺——华堂商场自1998年开业以来便积极引进保证食品安全放心的机制，如销售有机蔬菜及提供产地直销服务、公开生产商信息等举措。在华堂商场开业之初，能够有这些举措的零售企业少之又少。而现在，正像大家所理解的那样，这种做法已经发展成为中国大型零售业界默认的行业标准。

中国有句古语叫“民以食为天”。从这句话可以看出，中国自古代以来就有把食物看成像“天”一样重要的传统。但是，近来中国食品安全事件频发，网络上关于食品安全的传言也很多。对于这种情况，日本的媒体也有所报道。我作为中国的邻居甚为担忧。像上面几个事例说明的那样，我们民营企业在过去的十几年为了中国的食品安全做了很多踏踏实实的工作。因此，在这里我对北京市政府的正式提案是：建立一个中日合作的“食品安全检测机构”。通过这个机构，把日本在食品安全领域积累的技术分享到中国来，不仅仅为日本的消费者，也要为中国国内的消费者提供更加安全放心的食品，以此来为中国人民做贡献。伊藤忠商事作为50年代以后首家被中国政府认定为“友好商社”的综合商社，愿意率先推动这项事业向前发展。

日本在经济高速增长时期也曾经面临过严重的环境公害问题，这些环境问题最后演变成重大的社会问题，这是我们痛苦的经历。其他的发达国家也都无一例外在发展过程中遇到这样或那样的问题。中国在短时间内以极快的速度发展至今，所遇到的问题的严重性也和其他国家有很大的差异。相信日本的政府和民间共同克服公害问题的经验和技术一定可以为中国，特别是为北京做出贡献。

总结:

日本的经济从上个世纪60年代起步，80年代迎来顶峰时期。当时，世界上都把日本的发展称为“世界史上的奇迹”。哈佛大学的傅高义教授写了一本题为《Japan as No.1》的书来称赞日本奇迹般的发展，那时大家都认为这种奇迹在日本以外的国家不可能发生。现在，中国的飞跃发展被世人称为继日本以后的又一个“亚洲奇迹”、“世界奇迹”。相信在这样一个奇迹般发展着的中国，日本的经验和技术一定会有用武之地，我真心期待中日在产业的合作上、双赢关系的构建上更上一层楼。

21世纪将有一半以上人口都会居住在城市，是一个名副其实的“城市世纪”，据说到2050年，城市人口将占世界总人口的70%。21世纪又被称为“城市间竞争的时代”。衷心祝愿北京在这个城市竞争时代繁荣昌盛！

Striving for a Dependable, Safe and Globally Trusted Beijing Proposal by ITOCHU to Spur Beijing’s Development as a Global City
——Masahiro Okafuji，President & CEO，ITOCHU Corporation

(Key Elements of the Proposal)

Allow me to first say how very pleased I am to see China’s transformation into an economic powerhouse that today wields considerable influence and has a commanding presence in the international community. At the same time, as a corporate manager from neighboring Japan, which itself has walked the very same path as China is today, I want to take this opportunity to candidly offer some specific proposals that will help further the development of Beijing and promote the healthy development of China as a whole.

(Proposal Details)

The key element of my proposal is for Beijing to strive to become a city with a reputation for dependability and safety trusted worldwide by ensuring food reliability and safety.

Over the last two decades, China has moved at breakneck speed from being the world’s production floor to becoming a global market, and boasts the second highest GDP in the world. But growth has come at a price, specifically the emergence of many serious distortions and contradictions that the Chinese government recognizes are problematic. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, speaking before the National People’s Congress this past March, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring food safety and reliability, and to stepping up the crackdown on illegal and malicious businesses. The Prime Minister’s words were also widely reported in Japan. We are all well aware that the stability of China’s political and economic development cannot be sustained without a sense among citizens that reliability and safety are the norm. Food reliability and safety are issues fundamentally tied to citizens’ happiness and wellbeing, and are essential to address in order to realize a harmonious society.

(Proposal Details in Depth)

Amid ongoing economic globalization in the past sixty years, Japan, while balancing globalization and localization, has seen the public and private sectors work together to create the best structure for ensuring food safety in the world. As Japanese people, we view our country’s food safety and reliability as representing the brand value of the “Japan” name, and we take pride in this reputation.

Now I would like to say a few words about dependability and safety. “Safety” is an issue that can be examined in a scientific way. In contrast, “dependability” is a much more emotional issue that, in a word, boils down to “trust.” In terms of the everyday lives of Beijing’s citizens, safety is something that can be obtained with enough money. But dependability lies beyond their reach without government, corporations and citizens working together to achieve it. If the people of Beijing do not feel that dependability, and the peace of mind it brings, exists all around them, the sense that society is unfair and their dissatisfaction with it will build. This will almost certainly be detrimental both to China’s own economic development and that of the world as a whole. This is a good starting point to discuss the collaborative efforts of the public and private sectors with respect to food safety in Japan, and to share with you my own specific proposals in this area.

Japanese society saw economic growth accompanied by rapid urbanization, a decline in farmland, and a dramatic drop in its food self-sufficiency rate, the latter being a social problem that we still contend with today. Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate from a domestic production standpoint is 69%, but on a caloric basis is just 39%. Because the Japanese dinner table is so dependent on foreign markets, the government and corporations have toiled long and hard over many years to protect the safety of Japan’s citizens and ensure their peace of mind.

It is safe to say that along with all the players in the value chain comprised of the agriculture, food processing, and distribution industries putting their best effort forward based on shared standards, the guidance, directives and other measures from the Japanese government have improved and evolved with the times. In this way, the public and private sectors in Japan have worked together for more than 50 years to address structures and systems for ensuring food safety. Dependability is first preceded by verifiable safety. Today, Japanese companies retain the world’s highest level of expertise with respect to food traceability, covering everything from raw ingredients and materials to finished products.

I will now offer two practical ways in which Japanese standards can contribute to food reliability and safety in China. Finally, I would like to propose initiatives concerning food safety and reliability that the public and private sectors in China and Japan can work together to address.

One of the practical examples I mentioned is in the manufacturing industry, while the other is in distribution. The example in the former involves frozen foods. In the 1980s, the yen’s sharp appreciation saw a surge in the relocation of production bases overseas. Japan’s frozen food industry strictly instructed their partner companies in China on Japanese production standards, production and manufacturing knowhow, and on the manual regarding quality control. Chinese companies, meanwhile, constantly put forth outstanding effort. As a result, one could argue that the standards in China’s frozen food industry today were created in direct reference to Japanese industry standards. ITOCHU Corporation, for its part, has been involved with China’s largest frozen food exporter, Longda Foodstuff Group, since day one. What’s more, Longda’s Food Safety Inspection Division has even been entrusted with administrative tasks from the Chinese government, a fact that makes me very proud.

The other example is from the retail industry, specifically Seven & i Group mass-retailer Ito Yokado. In Japan, food product labels, information about the producer, and all other data are disclosed to consumers to ensure food safety and consumer peace of mind. ITOCHU helped push the advancement of Ito Yokado into China, making it the first foreign-owned retail store to operate in the country. Since opening in 1998, Ito Yokado in China has aggressively adopted mechanisms for safeguarding consumer peace of mind and safety. These include handling organic vegetables, the procurement of food directly from production sites, and the disclosure of producer data and other information. When the store first opened, initiatives of this kind in China’s retail industry were very rare. But as you all know, today these very same measures have become an unspoken standard among major Chinese retailers.

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that roughly translates as, “For people, nothing comes before food.” This saying suggests to me that since ancient times, there has been a tradition in China of viewing food to be a top priority.

However, in recent years, the Internet has been abuzz with a rash of food contamination incidents in China, along with baseless rumors about Chinese food products. Much of this has also been reported in Japan, and as a neighbor I find it all a bit disheartening. As I intimated in earlier, private-sector Japanese companies have worked diligently over the past decade or more to address food safety in China. Along these lines, I would very much like to propose to the Beijing municipal government the establishment of a Food Safety Inspection Agency as a joint Japanese-Chinese venture. Through this agency, we absolutely want to share Japanese expertise in food safety with China. This step will benefit not only products earmarked for Japan, but will contribute to the wellbeing of the Chinese people by also ensuring the safety and reliability of food for domestic consumption. For ITOCHU Corporation, the first general-trading company to be recognized as a friend by the Chinese government, this is an effort that we very much want to take the lead in spearheading.

Japan also had the bitter experience of having to confront serious environmental pollution during its period of high growth, which ballooned into a major social problem. All other advanced industrial nations, too, have been dogged by distortions of some kind that emerged as they developed. Because China has developed so rapidly in a short period of time, the seriousness of the problems it faces is far greater in magnitude than that of other countries. But I am convinced that the experience and expertise that the public and private sectors gained in overcoming our country’s pollution problems can be of help to China, and especially to Beijing.

(Summary)

Japan’s own economic development began in the 1960s and peaked in the 1980s. Foreign observers at the time began referring to it as the “Japanese Growth Miracle.” Professor Ezra Vogel at Harvard University authored a book on Japan’s miraculous growth titled Japan as Number One, and at the time it was thought that no other market would ever see the kind of growth that Japan had. Today, China’s own dramatic economic growth has joined that of Japan as part of what some call the “Asian Miracle” or the “Global Miracle.” Given that China, too, is experiencing unprecedented growth, I believe that lessons and knowhow from Japan will prove useful. And I have high hopes that together we can build partnerships and win-win relationships between Japanese and Chinese industry going forward.

The 21st century is the “Urbanization Century,” since most of the world’s population now lives in cities. By 2050, the proportion of city dwellers is expected to reach 70% worldwide. The 21st century is also becoming known as one of competition between the world’s urban centers. In this light, allow me to close by offering my sincerest wishes for Beijing’s prosperity in the years to come.