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Japan Lacks Biological Agent Sensors Outside Tokyo
Japan lacks the sensors needed to detect a biological attack outside of Tokyo, the Daily Yomiuri reported today (see GSN, July 12). Most cities in the United States have portable devices that can determine if a suspicious substance is anthrax. In Japan, however, only the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo has this equipment, according to the Yomiuri. The Aum Shinrikyo cult in 1993 actually sprayed a nonpoisonous form of anthrax in a section of Tokyo, but the government never issued a warning and has not taken significant measures to block further incidents, the Yomiuri reported. Soichi Makino of Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine is only one of only a handful of researchers in Japan who study anthrax. He said the government’s failure to prepare for an anthrax attack was a national crisis. “Japan itself should prepare the items required to meet such a crisis,” he said. Makino worked with private companies to develop an anthrax test kit in 2002, months after the anthrax attacks in the United States. Equipment in the kit can determine if a substance is anthrax in less than a minute. Some research institutes purchased the kit, but interested waned over time. Only 60 were sold, according to the Yomiuri. The number of researchers specializing in anthrax has not increased. While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has 8,000 researchers and employees, the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Disease has only 380 employees and researchers, the Yomiuri reported. “Japan should consider how to prepare for an emergency that could inflict serious damage if it occurs — although there is little chance of it happening. Japan stands at the crossroads, and must decide whether it is content to live in a situation whereby we simply hope the nation will have researchers knowledgeable about [biological] agents in the event of an emergency, or whether it is determined to strategically nurture experts to deal with such emergencies,” said Hideyuki Horii of Tokyo University's graduate school (Daily Yomiuri, Oct. 21).
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