Japanese officials inspect second factory as health supplements linked to deaths

Japan’s health ministry officials walk into a plant operated by a subsidiary of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical (Yohei Fukai/Kyodo News/AP)

Japanese government health officials have inspected a factory producing health supplements linked to at least five deaths and illness among more than 100 other people, a day after the authorities investigated another plant that manufactured the product.

A team of 17 health officials from the central and prefectural governments raided a plant operated by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical’s subsidiary in Kinokawa, in the western Japanese prefecture of Wakayama, under the food sanitation act.