science

Meat Hope

Meat Hope is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Meat Hope rather than just read about it. In short: Meat Hope Inc. (ミートホープ株式会社, Mito Hopu Kabushiki-gaisha) was a meat processing and wholesaling company headquartered in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Japan.

Key takeaways

Meat Hope belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Meat Hope to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Meat Hope from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Meat Hope Inc. (ミートホープ株式会社, Mito Hopu Kabushiki-gaisha) was a meat processing and wholesaling company headquartered in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Japan. It went bankrupt in 2007 after several scandals of fraudulently labeling foodstuffs, including a ground beef fraud scandal. The fraud came to light after a former executive felt called upon to become a whistleblower. This led to the opening of Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency on September 1, 2009, a month ahead of schedule.

Summary Meat Hope was established in 1976 by Minoru Tanaka. When Tanaka, who originally worked for a different meat provider, founded his company, he originally focused on the production and supplying of meat products. During the heyday of Hokkaido's food processing wholesale industry, Meat Hope was number 1 in sales. In January 2006, they had about 100 employees and about 500 employees if including associated companies. After graduating from junior high school, Tanaka worked his way up the corporate ladder. In doing so, he helped expand the business and grow the company. With Tanaka as the president and supported by his sons as executives and presidents of associated companies, the company was a typical family business (See also #Associated Companies). In April 2006, a year before the ground beef fraud scandal, Tanaka was awarded the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Commendation for Innovation (he later returned the commendation). He was awarded for the development of "a processor that could uniformly mix the red meat and fat in ground beef." However, after getting the commendation and while the fraud was being conducted, Meat Hope received an order to stop the manufacturing of char siu because they had gone over the legally designated limit of food additives allowed in the meat. Tanaka did research on meat himself and from within the company was said to be a "genius" who knew a lot about meat. However, the reality was that in order to bring the costs down on the so-called "product development", they would mix in food additives along with other inexpensive products such as cow and pig innards, and discarded meats. The plan was to make ground meat look good through artificial means. On June 6, 2007, the scandal over the fraudulent labeling of the quality of Meat Hope's ground beef began. With many instances of the mislabeling of food coming to light, it became impossible to continue company operations. On July 17 of the same year, Meat Hope applied for personal bankruptcy. On the same day, it was decided to commence with bankruptcy proceedings. Their total debt was about 670,000,000 yen. A meeting of Hope Meat's creditors was held on November 20 of the same year. However, among Meat Hope's client companies, one company experienced a loss adding up to tens of millions of yen. So the recovery of all of Hope Meat's debt was hopeless. On August 7, 2008, due to the lack of funds, the company was closed due to bankruptcy, i.e., it ceased to exist as a legal entity. The head office building also remained after the sale. However, since no buyers were found, it was demolished and now no longer exists. Minoru Tanaka was arrested and prosecuted. Then on March 19, 2008, he was sentenced to prison for 4 years by the Sapporo District Court for the violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law. Tanaka said he wanted to atone for his crimes, so he will accept the courts verdict and not seek an appeal from the Sapporo High Court.

The meat fraud scandal

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Meat Hope

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Meat Hope claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Meat Hope before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Meat Hope ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Meat Hope

In research: Meat Hope appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Meat Hope in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Meat Hope is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies that have filed for bankruptcy in Japan, Corporate crime, Food and drink companies disestablished in 2008, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Meat Hope outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Meat Hope in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Meat Hope means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Meat Hope out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Meat Hope in simple terms?

Meat Hope Inc. (ミートホープ株式会社, Mito Hopu Kabushiki-gaisha) was a meat processing and wholesaling company headquartered in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Japan.

Why does Meat Hope matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Meat Hope?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Meat Hope.