Kurashi - News From Japan

Saturday night, NTV, a commercial TV station here in Japan, asked viewers to rank 100 women they love. I was happy to see that a Swedish woman made the list! No other than the lovely Ingrid Bergman: 1. Natsume Masako 2. Audrey Hepburn 3. Princess Diana 4. Cleopatra 5. Mother Teresa 6. Florence Nightingale 7. Grace Kelly 8. Marilyn Monroe 9. Joan of Arc 10. Marie Antoinette 11. Honda Minako 12. Yang Guifei 13. Helen Keller 14. Vivien Leigh 15. Ingrid Bergman 16. Teresa Teng 17. Okada Yukiko 18. Katharine Hepburn 19. Marie Curie 20. Eri Chiemi　 It is a pretty weird list, but ok, TV shows tend to get responses from people who care deeply about their particular hero - or heroine!

Karaoke. In Japan, that means entering a tiny, smoky room with plastic sofas and a huge karaoke machine, a truly great sound system, and a phone for ordering drinks. Lots of drinks. There is a song list the size of a telephone book, with a large number of songs in foreign languages as well, mostly English, Korean and Chinese. So I did a little consumer research, and (proudly) found the following Swedish artists represented in the DAM catalogue: ABBA 11 songs Ace of Base 8 songs Meja 5 songs Roxette 5 songs Europe 3 songs Other Scandinavian artists: Björk 6 songs A-ha 3 songs Bonus: Meja All About the Money (1998)

California practically invented car culture, depicted in movies from American Graffiti to The Fast and the Furious. Los Angeles is the home of the TV show Pimp My Ride, Dan Neil, the Pulitzer Prize-winning motoring writer, hot-rod races and drive-thru Starbucks outlets. So? Bill Lockyer, the attorney-general of California, has issued a declaration of war against Ford, GM, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, Nissan, Honda... Why? “Vehicle emissions are the single most rapidly growing source of the carbon emissions contributing to global warming, yet the automakers have refused to act,” he said. “It is time to hold these companies responsible for their contribution to this crisis.” Great article in The Times , lets hope this lawsuit raises a few eyebrows and gets global warming firmly on the political agenda, and makes everyone start worry in the boardrooms in the US, Europe, and in Japan. (The photo shows California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with his Humvee, that he converted to use "gre...

Japan is now the third largest market for natural and certified organic products after the United States and Europe. With the introduction of the livestock organic JAS law this March and the ever increasing interest of quality organic products among Japanese consumers, the Japanese market is sure to experience further growth. Biofach Japan at Tokyo Big Site is open to the public on Saturday, September 23. BioFach Japan is a trade show that gathers national and international certified organic and approved natural products under the same roof which all originate from production methods that pay respect to the environment. These products are either organically produced raw materials of the first sector or originate from these like natural beauty products or textiles made of natural fibers. BioFach Japan first took place in Tokyo as Asia's only Trade Fair for organic products in 2001 when the Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) for organic products was first introduced. BioFach Japan ...

54回スウェーデン研究連続講座のご案内 テーマ： 「スウェーデンの消費者政策と食品安全問題:日本との違い」 　 日時： ９月２５日(月）18:00～20：00 場所： スウェーデン大使館オーディトリウム (Swedish Embassy Auditorium) （港区六本木１－１０－３） 地下鉄神谷町、南北線六本木一丁目 講師： 日本消費者連盟顧問 マーチン・フリッド　氏 参加料： JISS会員･スウェーデン語講座受講生 および (Japan Institute for Scandinavian Studies) 　 社会人1,000円/１回 　 学生　500円/１回（当日支払 ） 申込み先： メール：sweden@tkm.att.ne.jp Ｔｅｌ：03‐5661‐6035　Ｆａｘ：03‐3655‐1596 9月第54回スウェーデン研究連続講座のご案内を申し上げます。 今回は、スウェーデンを始め国連、世界食糧機構（FAO）や世界保健機構（WHO）に関係する世界各国の消費者運動のＮＧＯで活躍してこられた、マーチン・フリッドさんにその豊富な経験をお話いただきます。特に、生協の発祥の地であるスウェーデンの消費者問題を日本との比較でご紹介し、併せて食糧問題を食品安全の観点から論じます。 フリッドさんは世界25カ国に滞在しましたが、なかでも日本文化に惹かれ、臨済寺で2年近く座禅の修行をつまれました。

If you watched Japanese TV last night you saw a lot of beef! Yoshinoya had a one-day-only sale of its popular dish, gyudon. Long lines outside... Sales officially starts October 1 after more than 2 1/2 years, due to concerns about mad cow disease in American cattle. Lots of photos of the long lines here . Crazy. Also, Asahi reported that 26% of chicken farms accross Japan that were tested by the Japan Poultry Association had salmonella. It seems such tests are not done by the government, like in Europe, and this was the first test on a nationwide scale. Other studies indicate that about three out of 10,000 eggs are infected with salmonella in Japan. The Asahi has the story: Salmonella found in 26％ of egg farms The results of JPA's survey were compiled into an unofficial report in March last year, but the JPA did not publicize the results. "We did not want to give consumers the misunderstanding that many eggs are contaminated," an official said. The Asahi Shimbun recently...

Swedish singer Carola Häggqvist tried to make it big in Japan in the mid 1980s with this song, called "Tokyo". This is a version from the Swedish TV program Nöjesmaskinen! Update: Andreas writes that a Japanese version of this song actually made it onto the hit charts here. He has a great list of Western artists who made more or less embarassing attempts to charm Japanese music fans, including Bee Gees (Tokyo Nights), Michael Cretu (Samurai), Europe (Ninja), Styx (Mr. Roboto) - and most recently, Gwen Stefani (Harajuku Girls). Bonus: Back to Carola: I remember this live concert in Malmö Pildammsparken in the summer of 1983, but was her dancing really that bad... Carola: Hey Mickey