行政

Food safety is drawing more concerns in China, due to the frequent occurrence of scandals and unsatisfactory governmental responses, etc. March 14, 2013, the 1st session of 12th National People’s Congress adopted the Restructuring Plan of the State Council, to which citizens highly expect that the government can improve its services including food safety assurance. Taking this opportunity, this paper aims to analyze the new perspectives and challenges of food safety administration in China, and raise policy recommendations on further reforms through comparative study with Japan. Firstly, background of this restructure was summarized, including the ongoing super-ministry reform, threatened food safety, advances in legislation and institutional adjustment. Furthermore, we showcased the main contains of this restructuring plan on improving food safety assurance, through comparing the major ministries in charge before and after its adoption. By this reform, food safety assurance is hoped to be improved with powers be concentrated to fewer ministries, clearer classification of risk assessment and management. However, according to the theory of risk analysis, poor risk communication, somewhat overlapped functions of some ministries, etc., need to be resolved with international reference. Hence based on reviewing Japan’s experiences in concerning legislation and balanced power among ministries, we compared the food safety administrational systems of the two countries. Finally, policy recommendations were raised mainly from the perspectives of improving consumers’ involvement, legislation and further institutional restructure.