Abstract
In Japan, “food” became a big social issue in about 2002. It is considered to have been constructed at a stretch by digging up lots of past problems and being socially recognized from increase of the social concern about the food issues ignited by the outbreak of BSE in 2001, rather than de novo risk arose at this time. This paper shows first why BSE could have such impact on our society by illustrating its peculiarity as an illness, and what followed events attracted attention from the public. Then we describe the mechanism of setting off the panic in order to help solve the analogous cases in the future.
