Risk and Food Safety in China and Japan reframes the relationship between risk and food. The book theorises the links between food and risk and analyses the decision-making process in light of risks and governance. The relationship between food risks, governance systems, and economic decisions is assessed in order to explore ideas such as the "pact of nutrition" and the theory of weak signals. This book will be an important resource for scholars, academics and policy-makers in the fields of sociology, economics, food studies, Chinese studies and Japanese studies and theories of risks and safety.

1. Risk and Food Safety in
China and Japan
Louis Augustin-Jean & Jean Pierre Poulain
Theoretical Perspectives
and Empirical Insights

2. Risk and Food Safety in
China and Japan
Around the world, food has probably never been as safe as it is today.
However, periodic crises have aroused consumer anxiety and contributed
to a general lack of confidence in the agro-industrial system. The diverse
nature of these crises increases governments’ and industry difficulties in
predicting and tackling them.
This book addresses the relations between risk and food theoretically and empirically
through case studies from Japan and China. Part one of the book examines the
interaction between theoretical aspects and decision-making. The book theorizes the
links between food and risk and analyses the decision-making process in light of risks and
governance. The relationship between food risks, governance systems, and economic
decisions is assessed to explore ideas such as the "pact of nutrition" and the theory of
weak signals. Part two examines case studies from China and Japan in the aftermaths of
recent crises such as the milk powder scandal in China and food safety following the
Fukushima nuclear accident and tsunami in Japan. This book will be an important
resource for scholars, academics and policy-makers in the fields of sociology, economics,
food studies, Chinese studies and Japanese studies and theories of risks and safety.

3. Table of contents
Introduction by Louis Augustin-Jean and Jean Pierre Poulain
Part 1 Theoretical and Regulatory Framework
– Chapter 1: by Beyond Weak Signals Listening Theory: From Risk Analysis to the
Management of Alimentary Concerns Jean-Pierre Poulain
– Chapter 2: Food Safety and Consumer Rationality: Is a "Food Pact" Possible? By
Florent Champy
– Chapter 3: Contemporary Food Crises: When Industrial Failure Meets State
Impotence Vincent Simoulin
Part 2 Perspectives from Japan and China
– Chapter 4: Revisiting Frank Knight: Risks and Uncertainties in the Context of Food Safety in Japan after
the Fukushima Nuclear Accident by Louis Augustin-Jean
– Chapter 5: Essential Elements for Interactive Risk Communication in the Food-Related Emergencies: A
Model and Experiments on the Health Effects of Radioactive Substances by Yoko Niiyama
– Chapter 6: The Private-Public Complementary Relationship for Managing Catastrophic Risk in Egg
Production and Marketing in Japan, by Michitoshi Yamaguchi
– Chapter 7: The Rise of a Risk-Based Approach to Implementing Food Safety Law in China by Yongkang An
– Chapter 8: A Study on Peasant Behaviour and Peasant Niche in Contemporary China’s Agri-food Supply
System: Evidence from Henan Province by Jinghan Ke and Shuji Hisano
– Chapter 9: Food Risks? What Food Risks? – Gaps between Perception and Practice in Chinese Food
Consumption by David Kurt Herold
Conclusion by Jean Pierre Poulain and Louis Augustin-Jean

4. Dr. Louis Augustin-Jean
Associate professor, Taylor’s University.
Research fellow associated to the
University of Paris 13, Centre d’Economie
de l’Université de Paris-Nord (CEPN),
France. He specializes in the elds of
economic sociology, sociology of risks and
the soci- ology of food. He has lived for
over twenty years in Asia, both in Hong
Kong and in Japan, where he worked as
Associate Professor at the University of
Tsukuba. He co-edited The Political
Economy of Agro-food Markets in China
(2015).

5. Prof. Jean Pierre Poulain
Professor in sociology and anthropology at
the University of Toulouse, France. He
conducts research in the sociology of food,
focusing on the changes of eating patterns,
their links with health and food crises under
the CERTOP UMR-CNRS 5044. He currently
holds the Chair of Food Studies, jointly
created by the University of Toulouse and
Taylor’s University (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
and co-directs the International Associated
Laboratory (LIA-CNRS) “Food, Cultures and
Health”. Among his many publica- tions is
The Sociology of Food: Eating and the Place
of Food in Society (2017).

6. Prof. Florent Champy
Sociologist and research
professor in the National Centre
for Scienti c Research
(University of Toulouse,
National Centre for Scient- i c
Research, LISST-CERS, Toulouse,
France). His main elds of
research are professional work,
risks and health. His research
focuses on the obstacles to
practical wisdom in modern
societies.

7. Prof. Vincent Simoulin
Professor at Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurés,
researcher at CERTOP (Centre of research on work,
organizations and public policies), University of
Toulouse, France. His main elds of studies are
organizational change, governance and research
policies. His publications include “An Instrument Can
Hide Many Others, Or How Multiple Instruments
Grow into a Polymorphic Instrumentation” (Social
Science Information, 2017), “The Synchrotron
Generations: Communities and Facilities at the
Crossroads between the National and the
International” (Revue française de sociologie, 2016)
and La gouvernance territoriale. Pratiques, discours et
théories (with Romain Pasquier and Julien Weisbein,
2013).

8. Prof. Yoko Niiyama
Professor at the College of
Economics, Ritsumeikan University
and emeritus professor of Kyoto
University, Japan. She graduated
from the Faculty of Agriculture,
Kyoto University and holds a PhD
from Kyoto University. Her main
research eld is food system and
food safety. Her publications
include Theories of Food-Safety-
System Practices (2004) and The
Beef, Food System: Comparative
Analysis of Japan and US/EU
(2001).

9. Dr. Michitoshi Yamaguchi
Lecturer in food safety economics at
the Department of Agri-food
System, Faculty of Agriculture,
Ryukoku University, Japan. His main
research interests are animal health
economics, (human) health eco-
nomics and behavioural aspects of
food safety. He was the recipient of
several academic awards including
the 2015 annual award of The
Association for Regional Agricultural
and Forestry Economics for his book
Economic Analysis of Contagious
Animal Diseases (in Japanese).

10. Dr. Yongkang An
Postdoctoral researcher at
the Guanghua Law School,
Zhejiang University, China.
She has obtained her PhD
degree at University College
Dublin, Ireland. Her main
research interests include
regulation and governance,
food safety regulation and
public law.

11. Prof. Shuji Hisano
He is a professor of international
political economy of agriculture in
the Graduate School of Economics
at Kyoto University, Japan. He holds
a doctoral degree in agricultural
economics at Hokkaido University
(2001). His research interests
include global governance of food
security, industriali- 1 zation of
agricultural biotechnology, social
responsibility and regulation of 2
agribusiness corporations, and
international comparative study of
agrarian 3 and rural development.

12. Dr. David Kurt Herold
Taught and researched in China for over nine years,
before joining the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
in 2007. His research focuses on the everyday use of
information and communication technologies (ICTs).
In particular, he studies the Chinese internet,
encounters between Chinese and non-Chinese online,
the impact of the Internet on of ine society, and
online education. His recent publications include “Xi
Jinping’s Internet: Faster, Truer, More Positive and
More Chinese” (China: An International Journal, in
press); “Layers of Racism: ChinaSMACK and the
Failure of Cross- Cultural Communication” (in A. B.
Buccitelli, Race and Ethnicity in Digital Culture: Our
Changing Traditions, Impressions, and Expressions in
a Mediated World, 2017); and “Whisper Campaigns:
Market Risks through Online Rumours on the Chinese
Internet” (Chinese Journal of Social Work, 2015).

13. https://www.crcpress.com/Risk-and-Food-Safety-in-China-and-Japan-Theoretical-
Perspectives-and-Empirical/Augustin-Jean-Poulain/p/book/9781138897656