Kurashi - News From Japan

Not really... But I thought about that title, just to get a sense of what might have happened IF! As you probably know, 2006 marks the anniversary of Mozart's birth, so there are an enormous amount of events to celebrate the Austrian genious. So be it. The photo shows my father, a music critic for a local Swedish newspaper, Skånska Dagbladet, enjoying his latest issue of Gramophone . Here in Japan, there are indeed many concerts this year, as orchestras and performers (and their sponsors) are eager to get you to appreciate, say, his sonata for two pianos (KV 448). I also recommend this aria from the Zauberflaute. Or a violin concerto (KV 306) with Isaac Stern? Hmm, my favourite is the adagio from the clarinet concerto, completed just before his death (KV 622). Enjoy - and thanks to all the Korean bloggers who are bringing classical music to me!

Japan did not keep its promise to send officials to check U.S. meatpacking plants before resuming U.S. beef imports in December, farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa admitted Monday. "It was not possible to check if conditions for resuming U.S. beef imports were being met until we actually resumed imports," Nakagawa said in response to questions in the Parliament. The Japan Times also reports that Japanese officials visited 11 facilities, in California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas. But not all U.S. facilities processing Japan-bound beef are open to inspectors. Because Japan has few qualified officials to make the inspections, the checks mostly targeted documents. Seems Japan is partly to blame for the latest beef scandal, but still I cannot understand why the U.S. officials didn't know that spine was not permitted in Japan. Does it mean the U.S. inspector (as well as the meat company) has no education about BSE and how mad cow disease is transmitted?

A Chinese woman touches a Chinese character "Fu" with the help of her husband at a park in Dalian, China. "Fu" is one of the most popular Chinese characters used in Chinese Lunar New Year, symbolising blessing, good fortune and good luck. Chinese Lunar New Year falls on January 29 this year. (Photo: Newsphoto)

South Korea has suspended pork imports from Belgium and the Netherlands after cancer-causing dioxin was found in Belgian animal feed products, according to Reuters. Dioxins are toxic chemicals that originate in pesticides or industrial processes, leach into rivers and lakes and build up in the flesh of fish and animals. Environmental pollution often causes human health problems. The proverb "we are all connected" is really true, isn't it. At different meetings, I have met people working for the animal feed industry, and they really need to consider their responsibility more seriously. Read more here .

Since Japan started providing financial aid to China in the mid 1970s, many projects have been supported also to improve the environment. Air pollution control measures and sewage plants are among the ODA projects. Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has provided a number of ODA loans for projects aimed at improving the environment in China, where a variety of problems, including air pollution and deteriorating water quality, have come to the surface in parallel with the rapidly growing economy. JBIC asked Kyoto University to conduct a study on the effectiveness of these projects, and verified the direct impact of the environmental projects in China for the first time. For example, the study found that sulphur dioxide (SO2) was reduced by 190,000 tonnes thanks to the Japanese ODA projects: 52 million people benefited from electric power supply (industrial development and rural electrification); 31,660,000 people from safe water supply and treatment of domestic and industria...

Found an interesting story about betel nut consumption in Taiwan, and felt it was my duty to share the link to a page with photos of the salesladies ... But, according to Taiwan's health officials, quoted by Bloomberg , chewing addictive betel nuts, the seed of the betel palm, increases the risk of mouth cancer: Officials are encouraging farmers to plant alternatives to the $359 million annual crop, urging about 1.6 million users to quit. "We aren't very optimistic," said Wu Chien-yuan, a Health Department section chief in Taipei. "We'll focus on preventing people from starting." Betel, or areca, nuts increase the heart rate and induce a mild sense of excitement, said Hahn Liang-Jiunn, an oral and facial surgeon at Taipei's National Taiwan University Hospital. As many as 400 million people from East Africa to Indonesia chew the seeds and leaves regularly, the British Medical Journal reported in April 2002.

Globalisation has increased the danger of catastrophes spreading quickly across the world and causing more harm, a study prepared for the World Economic Forum warned, according to Reuters. As an example, it cited a bird flu pandemic, which it said was currently the biggest threat facing the planet. The study, released at the WEF's annual meeting in Davos, said travel, trade and interconnected markets meant that disasters in one part of the globe could set dominoes falling elsewhere. Read the article here .