Calling someone “my little dumpling” is not a term of endearment in Japan, at least not these days. Ever since 10 people fell ill, one seriously, after eating frozen gyoza made in China, the Japanese media have been struck down with poison dumpling fever.

The gyoza were imported by Japan Tobacco, a semi-state-owned cigarette maker that, in seeking to diversify into foods, improbably hit on a product even more dangerous than its normal offering. But suspect-in-chief is China. The discovery of a highly toxic pesticide in some of the gyoza packaging reinforces prejudices about the state of Chinese hygiene and organisation. “At a popular level, this somehow confirms suspicions about a malfunctioning of Chinese society,” says Akihiko Tanaka, a China expert at Tokyo University.