Experiences in Food Safety Risk Communication

In April 2003, the author was transferred to the newly created Safety Information Department at the National Institute of Health Sciences, and since then has been involved in the publication of the bi-weekly "Food Safety Information" (chemical substances) and other duties. Risk communication has been an important part of my work from the beginning, and I have endeavored to communicate in a variety of ways, giving a total of 335 lectures and presentations over 14 years since 2010 (the year of record) until retiring as Director of the Safety Information Department of the NIHS in March 2024. This paper describes the practice of risk communication to date and the author's subjective impressions gained from this practice.<br>Immediately after the Food Safety Commission was established with the enactment of the Food Safety Basic Law, there were high expectations and motivation for food safety risk communication in both the public and private sectors. The main purpose of the meeting was to reassure the audiences who deemed safe food to be not safe. However, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent release of radioactive materials created a situation in which food products were contaminated with clear carcinogens, which was a major challenge for food safety risk communication.<br>More than 10 years after the disaster, trust in food safety appears to have been restored through enormous efforts. In the midst of all this, an unprecedented scale of health hazard incidents caused by health foods occurred in 2024. The challenge of risk communication will not go away in the future.