Overview of Listeria monocytogenes contamination in Japan

Listeriosis is a relatively rare foodborne illness but can be life threatening with high fatality rates. In Japan, the incidence of listeriosis has been very low for the past 40 years compared with that of Western Europe and North America. We hypothesized that less Listeria monocytogenes contamination in Japanese foods would be related to the lower incidence in Japan. For this purpose, we collected data of Japanese foods contaminated with L. monocytogenes, mainly from Japanese-written reports, and reviewed them. From this review, we found that the proportion of L. monocytogenes, Listeria spp. isolation from foods in Japan is similar to those reported from other countries and that other factors might be responsible for the lower occurrence of listeriosis. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.