日本最担心的问题：食品污染
Food Contamination: The Last Thing Japan Needed
In recent years, Japan has languished on many fronts. Its economy has been weak, its politics muddled and its birth rate declining.
近年来，日本在很多领域都衰败了。日本经济持续低迷，政坛乱作一团，出生率也在不断下降。
But there's one area where Japan has forged ahead: food. Boasting dining options that offer that rare combination of healthfulness and tastiness - as well as the odd comfort-food special - Japanese cuisine has grown in international stature and influence.
Getty Images但有一个领域，日本却取得了长足的进展，这就是食品业。日本料理把健康与美味罕见地糅合在一起，加之奇异的安慰食品，使其在国际上的声望和影响力均有提高。
So if there's one thing Japan doesn't need in the wake of the disastrous combination of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the ensuing nuclear drama, it's problems with its food industry. But those seem a distinct possibility following Saturday's announcement by the government that milk and spinach bearing radioactive particles well above normal limits - the first-ever such discovery in Japan a - have been found in the broad area around the troubled Fukushima prefecture nuclear complex, including on a farm only 110 kilometers from Tokyo.
所以，如果说在3月11日地震和海啸及其后的核危机这些灾难降临后，日本不希望有哪一个行业出现问题的话，那就是食品业。但现在看来，日本的担心似乎很有可能变为现实，因为日本政府周六称，发现福岛受损核电站周围大范围地区的牛奶和菠菜中放射性物质大大超标，距离东京仅110公里的一座农场也是如此，这是日本国内首次查出食品中放射物超标。
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that the levels of radiation detected would not immediately affect human health. Still, it's hard to imagine the notion of contaminated food won't disturb Japan. And it's impossible to imagine the notion won't be unsettling overseas. Will sales of Japanese foodstuffs drop? Will Japanese products even be taken off shelves?
日本内阁官方长官枝野幸男(Yukio Edano)说，检测到的辐射水平不会对人体造成直接影响。尽管如此，依然很难想象食品受到污染这件事不会让日本人焦虑。另外，也无法想象这件事不会在日本以外的其它国家制造不安情绪。日本的食品销售额会因此下降吗？甚至说，日本产品会被下架吗？
Certainly, Japan's food exports don't account for a huge chunk of money; the country is a net food importer. But even a strong groundswell of sympathy around the world will be hard pressed to keep Japan's food flag flying high.
当然，日本食品出口额并不大，而且日本是个食品净进口国。但即使全世界都对日本的遭遇同情有加，日本仍将很难在食品领域继续昂首阔步地行进。