TOKYO — Japan's Agriculture Ministry approved the easing of the country's two-year-old ban on Canadian and U.S. beef imports beginning Monday, a ministry official confirmed.

The easing of the ban would allow meat from cows under the age of 21 months back into the Japanese market.

"We think it's great. It's something we've been working toward for three years now,'' said Neil Jahnke, past president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.

"It was our third-largest market, so it's extremely important. Not only for the beef we export, but to set the example for Korea and Taiwan as well,'' Jahnke added. "I'm hopeful that they'll follow the lead of the Japanese.''

The decision was formally adopted Monday by Japan's agriculture and health ministries, officials said. It follows a recommendation from the country's Food Safety Commission last week to resume limited imports.

The Japanese market was worth up to $150 million per year to Canadian beef producers. Before the ban, Canada exported between 10,000 and 20,000 tonnes of beef per year to the country.

Stan Eby, current president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said the move will help optimize the value of each cow, as the Japanese market will not take whole carcasses but rather specialized cuts and offal, meaning each carcass can be worth more overall.

"Prior to BSE, our export trade made a difference of between $150 and $200 per carcass, so I'm not sure how much the Japanese portion of that would be, but it could increase the value of a carcass by $100 per animal.''

BSE is shorthand for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, more commonly known as mad cow disease.

The brain wasting condition is caused by malformed infectious proteins called prions that are believed to have crossed the species barrier from infected cows to humans through consumption of infected beef.

Japan was among several countries to ban Canadian beef after the first case of mad cow was discovered in May 2003. American beef has been banned since December 2003, after the first case of mad cow disease in the U.S. herd.

Japan had a domestic mad cow crisis in 2001, and sales of beef plummeted by 70 per cent. The country took stringent and expensive measures to restore public confidence by testing every animal for the disease.

Japan has reported 21 cases since 2001, the latest confirmed over the weekend.

Before the ban, the Japanese market had been the most lucrative overseas market for American beef, worth $1.7 billion US in 2003.

The new rules would allow only meat from cows younger than 21 months, because no cases of mad cow disease have been found in cows that age. Besides requiring producers to certify the cow's age, the new rules also demand that inspectors follow strict guidelines, such as removing dangerous cow material such as brains and spinal cords.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Monday's decision was "an important step in terms of normalizing beef trade based on scientific standards.''

Canadian and U.S. beef could be back in the Japanese marketplace by the end of the year, said Japanese government officials.

Eby said there are still "problem areas'' in the new restrictions.

"We're looking at very young cattle in this Japanese market. We still can't ship any animals or animal product from animals over 30 months of age,'' he said.

"We're working to lobby the U.S. very actively to get that market re-established. So until we get that market and get full competition in all classes of cattle, we're not back to the new normal.''

The U.S. has partially reopened its border to Canadian beef. It is allowing trade in younger cows, thought to be at lower risk for contracting mad cow disease.

The U.S. Agriculture Department is also aiming to have a new proposal finished by next spring to allow older Canadian cows to cross the border again.

But the proposals would have to go through a public comment period, a months-long process. Canadian ranchers aren't expecting trade restrictions to be fully eased until late 2006 or some time in 2007.