TOKYO — A mistake at a Brooklyn meatpacking company and public hysteria in Japan about mad cow disease are raising tensions between the United States and Japan, reviving memories of the bitter trade disputes of the 1980s.

Japan reimposed a ban on all U.S. beef on Jan. 20 after Brooklyn meatpacker Atlantic Veal & Lamb shipped to Tokyo boxes of veal containing a spinal column, considered a "specified risk material" for mad cow disease.

The U.S. government acknowledges that the meatpacker and a U.S. Department of Agriculture meat inspector erred in sending the shipment to Japan. Under a December agreement, the United States had agreed not to include any specified risk materials such as brains and spinal columns in beef exports to Japan.

U.S. officials argue that American beef poses no danger to public health — even the errant shipment was uncontaminated and safe — and are pressuring Japan to lift the ban. "It was a stupid mistake, but it's a mistake that's stopped in its tracks a (multi) billion-dollar industry," says J. Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan. "You don't want beef to set off a trade war between the United States and Japan. ... This has the potential for being very damaging to the relationship. It's already had a corrosive effect."

The beef impasse is different from the old U.S.-Japan trade battles about auto parts, semiconductors and rice. This time, Japanese officials aren't trying to protect one of their industries from foreign competition. Japanese farms can't produce enough of their high-priced beef to meet domestic demand. Instead, Australian beef producers have been the biggest beneficiaries of Japan's ban on U.S. beef.

The Japanese government is taking a hard line to appease a public terrified of mad cow disease. Even Japanese officials acknowledge that the fears, stirred up by TV broadcasts of infected cattle, border on irrational.

The USDA report on Atlantic Veal's mistake says the meatpacker and the USDA inspector didn't understand the new limits on beef exports to Japan.

The Japanese have continued to demand an explanation for the lapse. U.S. lawmakers are losing patience, raising the specter of sanctions against Japanese goods and a possible trade war.

Japanese officials say U.S. strong-arm tactics make it harder to reach a deal. "The Japanese public might get the impression that we are responding to U.S. pressure. They would not trust us," says Hirofumi Kugita, a veterinary officer with the Japanese Agriculture Ministry.