Topeka ? Japanese businesses and consumers are eager to have their nation’s market reopened to Kansas beef, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday.

Sebelius, on a nine-day trade mission to Japan, said she had heard speculation from Japanese business officials on when their nation might lift its ban on American beef imports.

“Everybody is just speculating,” Sebelius said during a conference call from Osaka, Japan. “There were people who said, ‘We hope it happens by Christmas.”‘

She added: “Some were suggesting that it could even be before the election,” referring to the Nov. 2 presidential contest in the United States.

Sebelius said Japanese business leaders were pressuring their government to move toward lifting its American beef ban. Japan and other nations banned American beef after the discovery in December of mad cow disease in a cow in Washington state.

Last year, Japan was Kansas’ second largest trading partner and imported $175 million worth of beef.

“It is hugely harmful to our economy but what we’re finding over here is that also it’s not very satisfying to the Japanese consumers,” Sebelius said of the beef ban. “There’s a lot of demand that this issue be resolved quickly.”

Sebelius said many Japanese consumers prefer the taste of American beef instead of Australian or Japanese beef.

“Beef is a hot topic,” she said. “They like the cuts of American beef and to not have that available now is really causing a great deal of discontent.”

A food safety panel in Japan recently said mad cow tests on animals under 20 months old could be ended without raising the risk of humans contracting a related disease that’s rare but fatal.

Japanese and American officials are discussing testing standards that could lead to a partial lifting of the ban on beef imports.