The cattle spinal material found in packages of beef shipped from the United States in the photo released by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The ban was reinstated after a Tokyo-bound consignment of veal that arrived by plane Jan. 20 reportedly contained spinal material, a mad cow disease risk, that Japan had demanded be removed from all shipments as a condition for resuming imports, agriculture minister Shoichi Nakagawa said.

Once the world's biggest customer for U.S. beef, Japan ended the original ban Dec. 12, but only for meat from animals aged 20 months or younger, as younger animals are believed unlikely to carry mad cow disease.

The deal also excluded spines, brains, bone marrow and other cattle parts thought to pose a particularly high disease risk.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 28, 2006
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