Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502060054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: KOBE, JAPAN LENGTH: Medium
But last week when an American relief organization offered to fly as many as 1 million doses of flu vaccine to Kobe within 48 hours, free of charge, the government politely declined.
The health and welfare ministry explained that Japanese-made vaccines would be sufficient, even though by its own calculation it would not have enough vaccine ready for nearly two more weeks.
The rejection of foreign flu vaccine is not a surprise. Elements in the Japanese bureaucracy were also unenthusiastic, at least initially, to offers of foreign doctors to treat the injured, foreign dogs to sniff out those buried alive, foreign medicines to heal the sick and foreign undertakers to prepare the dead.
A mountain of Tylenol still sits in a locked warehouse because officials expressed concern that it may not be appropriate for Japanese bodies.
Normally Western business executives gripe about bureaucratic stonewalling as they try to penetrate the Japanese market. But in the aftermath of the earthquake that was centered here, the biggest losers and complainers have been the Japanese people.
``When the Japanese government refuses aid, it's not following its heart - it's just acting out a diplomatic game,'' said Kazuko Tatsu, 61, a woman living among several families in a classroom of a school surrounded by the rubble of less solid buildings.
Tatsu's eyes danced angrily as she referred to Japanese press reports about the agriculture ministry's attempt to enforce a quarantine against four French dogs that had been rushed to Kobe to search for people entombed alive in the debris.
The dogs did not in the end have to go through the quarantine, but their arrival was delayed until four days after the Jan. 17 earthquake, and by then it was too late for them to do much good: The nine victims that the dogs sniffed out through the rubble were all dead.
``The government officials should be able to switch their minds more quickly in an emergency like this,'' said Tatsu, who added that she would like a flu shot as soon as the vaccine is available. ``We don't really care what's happening among the top officials, but we're very grateful for the help.''
Japan proved to be a formidable market to crack even when the aim was not to sell medical supplies to Japan but to give them to the sick.
That much is apparent inside the locked doors of C warehouse on Rokko Island, just offshore from Kobe. In a corner on the cement floor are 14 forklift pallets of Tylenol.
An American relief organization, Americares, rushed the Tylenol to Kobe as part of a planeload of medical supplies sent immediately after the earthquake. With 26,000 people injured in the quake, the Tylenol seemed an appropriate contribution.
But Tylenol is not licensed for sale in Japan - an arduous process - and Japanese officials set it aside.
Health officials complained that the dosage might be inappropriate for Japanese bodies.
by CNB