The Financial Times, Asahi and Mainichi all report on the planned resumption of US beef imports on Monday, following a Thursday report concluding that US beef is generally as safe as Japanese beef. The deputy chairman of the panel behind the report has criticized media and political misuse of the findings, however, stating that the report does not recommend resumption of imports.

Japan and Vietnam have agreed to look at the ups and downs of a biletaral free trade agreement. Story at Kyodo News.

The Globe and Mail, a Canadian paper, has a story on free-trade talks that could lead to preliminary action as early as this week in order to study the benefits of the liberalization of trade and investment rules. Note that as this is from the Canadian perspective, while mention is made of Japan’s status as Canada’s second-largest export market and third-largest overall trading partner, as well as Canadian industry concerns about the talks, similar details are not present from the Japanese perspective.