Note: The following is a guest post from Kumi Sato of COSMO PR in Tokyo, a PROI partner with Jackson Spalding.
While reconstruction efforts in the northeastern parts of Japan ravaged by last month’s earthquake and tsunami are now underway, there are still many challenges facing this nation.
We find ourselves asking, what can we do as a company to help?
First and foremost, it’s important to get aid to those who need it. As chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ), I have been encouraging people to make donations to the ACCJ Disaster Relief Fund. Every little bit helps, so, please, pledge what you can to help those in need in the affected region.
Second, we would like to use our firm’s expertise to aid Japan in its rebuilding and recovery.
COSMO has years of expertise in promoting food safety. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) recently announced that some radioactive materials had been released into the atmosphere and ocean, and this has led to bans on the imports of Japanese food by a number of countries including the U.S., Singapore, Australia and Russia.
There are two terms in Japanese that come to mind when discussing food safety: anzen (安全) meaning “safety” and anshin (安心), meaning “peace of mind” or “anxiety-free”. To convince the public of the safety of food and related products, we believe it is critical to address these two terms.
Japan is home to a nation of consumers that are highly sensitive about food safety. The furor that followed the incidents of poisonings from frozen dumplings imported from China in January 2008 lasted months, causing irreparable damage to that country’s food safety reputation. Even domestic companies are not immune to the wrath of consumers when food safety is seen to be compromised, as witnessed by the backlash against popular Japanese confectioner Fujiya when it used expired ingredients in some of its production in 2007.
The responses to these scandals turned them into emotionally charged consumer anxiety (anshin) issues. The lack of ability to pinpoint the cause of the dumpling poisoning and the implied cover-up in the Fujiya scandal meant that consumers could not trust the source companies and, in the case of the dumplings scandal, the source country.
Unfortunately, many Japanese companies are still not prepared to handle such crises and tend not to have a strategic approach in handling the consequences. Mishandling the communication of issues leads to a complete loss of faith in a product brand, the corporate brand and, as we have seen, the producing nation’s brand. Japan’s reputation and economy will suffer as a result.
COSMO has a proven track record in the area of food safety communication, having represented American beef on behalf of the United States Meat Export Federation and seafood from Norway for the Norwegian Seafood Export Council for more than two decades.
We believe that the timely dissemination of credible information based on sound science is of critical importance. Any crisis communication must address both consumers’ emotional and rational responses.
Only once the “safety” (anzen 安全) of a product or situation has been established through a rational, scientific approach can the outreach effort begin to address the consumers’ sense of anshin (安心) and emotional trust. Once the science has been established and capably communicated, an empathetic response, including specific actions to take, will make people feel safer.
A sense of safety is given through the early release of easy-to-understand information coming from credible sources, the employment of a consistent message and the management of an open process. Peace of mind is given by taking quick action, proactively taking extra precautions, expressing empathy and providing specific actions for consumers to feel that they are minimizing their risk.
As we have seen in the current crisis, many elements have been missing from TEPCO and the government’s responses.
Often, the message has been difficult to understand and frequently inconsistent, leading to much confusion over the levels of radiation, the units in which they are measured, the risks posed, the foods affected and a breakdown of possible dangers.
This is likely related to the lack of a credible source within the the government. The Ministry of Agriculture Forests and Fisheries deals with product standards, while the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare deals in food safety laws, but neither deal with radiation standards for food.
Nor are the existing standards recommended by the World Health Organization and International Commission on Radiological Protection universal across governing bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. and the European Food Safety Authority. This has lead to differing responses from individual countries, mixed messages being sent out, and each country not wanting to seem left behind or unconcerned for its citizens.
Therefore, with an issue as complicated as radiation contamination, people do not understand the risks as there is no central, specific scientific authority, and this, in turn, will lead to an emotional response.
This is why we advise clients to have a robust crisis communications plan in place. This can be used to preempt or quickly correct inaccuracies or misinformation including the use of key opinion leaders who can use credible science to reassure consumers and other stakeholders of their safety.
I believe that there will be opportunities for us to contribute alongside fellow PROI colleagues in this area.
Many globalized Japanese companies will be seeking advice on how to handle public sentiment in each of their respective local markets. Due to their corporate structures, Japanese companies tend to want to lead this effort through their headquarters. We therefore believe that by partnering with other members of the PROI network, we can work together to approach these companies in each market and then provide a comprehensive solution on both fronts to the communications challenges that Japanese companies will continue to face over the coming months.
