Duties of Public Health Offices

Public Health Centers

The Public Health Centers license business facilities such as restaurants, food stores, and manufacturers; supervise and provide instructional guidance for these facilities; and hold seminars and services to spread and enlighten knowledge about food hygiene.
Additionally, Public Health Centers respond to inquiries from Tokyo citizens about food hygiene; investigate patients and facilities when a food poisoning incident occurs; take administrative measures pertaining to the facilities causing food poisoning; and provide instructional guidance for measures for improvement.
The Tama region, which is governed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, has five Public Health Centers and two Reginal Centers, and the island area also has four Public Health Centers and two Branches.

The Institute of Public Health

With the two objectives of securing the safety and reliability of foods, pharmaceutical products, drinking water and living environments, and of prevention against health risks such as infectious diseases, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health performs tests & inspections; and conducts researches & studies; analyzes and provides public hygiene information; and delivers supervision and instructional guidance.
The Institute’s Food Sanitation Inspectors provide professional supervision and instructional guidance, plus spread and educate about food hygiene. The Inspectors, mainly target facilities dealing with widely-distributed foods, including: large-scale food manufacturers, food distribution bases, and food importers in the whole Tokyo area, as well as, the markets in the Tama region. In addition, some Food Sanitation Inspectors are assigned to divisions that analyze, provide and inspect food hygiene information.

Wholesale Market Sanitation Inspection Stations

Based on the policy that defective foods should not be “brought into”, “taken out of”, or “made in” the central wholesale markets, such as the Tsukiji Market, the Food Sanitation Inspectors perform supervision and instructional guidance concerning foods distributed within the markets.
Inspectors monitor the individual market processes, including auctions in early mornings, to sales thereafter by intermediate wholesalers, in order to eliminate the threat from poisons of toxic fish and defective foods, and at the same time, provide the food-related business operators with educational guidance concerning food hygiene management.
Furthermore, Food Sanitation Inspectors perform various tests and inspections of the foods brought into the markets, including inspections for bacteria, and physicochemical inspections of additives and pesticide residues.
There are three inspection stations in Tokyo.

Shibaura Meat Sanitary Inspection Station

In order to distribute safe meat from the meat markets in Tokyo, the Inspectors, who are also veterinarians, inspect each animal to be slaughtered in accordance with the Slaughterhouse Act. The Inspection Station supervises and provides instructional guidance based on the Food Sanitation Act, concerning refrigeration and other facilities in the meat market, as well as, commercial facilities such as those related to meat processing.
The Inspection Station holds educational seminars for businesses and individuals that handle meat and other relevant parties to raise awareness on sanitation; and additionally conduct various projects regarding meat hygiene, including providing slaughtering inspection results to producers and others, in order to improve production management and the safety of meat.

Animal Care and Consultation Center

The Animal Care and Consultation Center, with the aim of realizing a “well-balanced cohabitation between humans and animals”, implement the following programs:

Dissemination and education about animal welfare spirit and appropriate animal breeding.

Provide educational classes and seminars about animal breeding, targeting elementary school students, to spread awareness of animal welfare and respect for life
Animal protection and management
The center gathers and treats ownerless and injured animals; however, only takes custody of dogs and cats from their owners in unavoidable cases. The center also assigns these dogs and cats and other animals to volunteer applicants who can appropriately keep the animals throughout their life cycle, after providing them with seminars.
Supervising and instructing animal handling businesses. The applicants for operation of animal handling businesses such as pet shops are required to undertake procedures for registration. In addition, those who desire to breed dangerous animals such as lions and poisonous snakes are required to obtain licenses. The Veterinarians inspect applicant facilities before registration and licensing, and perform periodical supervision and instructional guidance activities.
Prevention and inspection of zoonosis (Investigating and studying disease which can be transmitted to humans from animals, or the opposite way).

Duties of Head Office

The individual offices, including the Public Health Centers, perform supervision, instructional guidance and inspections as their regular duties in order to secure safety and reliability of foods distributed in Tokyo. The Food Monitoring Section in the Head Office prepares the “Tokyo Metropolitan Monitoring and Guidance Plan” with regard to monitoring and guidance in the whole Tokyo area; and communicates and makes arrangements with other local governments so that the individual offices can smoothly perform their roles. Additionally, the Food Monitoring Section reviews whether it is necessary to found a new facility for food hygiene restrictions and systems, or determine whether the existing facilities meet the current situations, and if necessary, they may change the facilities.
In addition to the Food Monitoring Section, the Head Office also has a section for the animal sanitation programs of Tokyo.

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