Japan reopened its market to U.S. beef on Thursday, lifting a ban that was imposed when risky backbone parts was found in a shipment in January, Kyodo News said.

The decision was made after Japanese inspectors checked meatpacking plants in the United States that were certified to export to Japan and found 34 qualified.

Products from the 34 plants are likely to arrive in Japan in August, it said.

Last month, Tokyo and Washington agreed that Japan will ease the ban after checking the implementation of export quarantine measures in U.S. meat-packing facilities.

Japan was a major U.S. beef market. In 2002, Japan imported 1.7 billion U.S. dollars worth of beef from the country.

Tokyo issued the original ban in December 2003, when the United States discovered its first case of the mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The ban was eased in December 2005, and reinstated in January 2006 when a shipment containing risky parts was discovered at Narita airport.

Source: Xinhua