| The purpose of this paper is to examine what kind of mechanism exists behind recent government decisions concerning food-borne risks in Japan. To fulfill this purpose, a conceptual model was built and applied to the contemporary Japanese political situation. Three major findings of this study are as follows: First, theoretically, excessively sensitive response to food-borne risks can be explained by the behavioral pattern presented by the Prospect Theory. There is a high possibility that politicians may magnify such consumer response if they act primary to maximize their probability of being re-elected. Secondly, when a food-borne risk is of great concern, it is possible that the politically optimum level of adopted preventive measures regarding... |
