Kurashi - News From Japan

This True Food Guide has been launched today here in Japan by Greenpeace. It is the result of careful research asking Japan's major food companies how they deal with the difficult GMO issue. Imported genetically manipulated soy, corn, canola (and long-grain US rice as well, although the government seems to have trouble knowing how to test it, since the contamination is illegal) are used by some companies, that make the "red" list. Greenpeace also tells consumers which foods make the "green" list. A wonderful idea that has helped food shoppers in other countries such as Australia . Order the Japanese True Food Guide . Asahi has the story here (in Japanese). Impressive piece of work, over a hundred companies have cooperated with Greenpeace Japan's team on this guide. Hope you are all members. . . GMO crops & food previous

Sweden has climbed to third in a ranking of the world's most competitive countries. In top spot is Switzerland , while Finland takes second place in the rating by the World Economic Forum. The figures are based on official statistics and interviews with over 11,000 people in leading positions from 125 countries. The other countries in the top ten are Denmark, Singapore, the US, Japan, Germany, Holland and the UK . WEF has the rest of the story. Excerpt: Leading within Asia are Singapore and Japan , ranked 5th and 7th respectively, closely followed by Hong Kong (11) and Taiwan (13). These economies are characterized by high-quality infrastructure, flexible and efficient markets, healthy and well-educated workforces and high levels of technological readiness and innovative capacity. Malaysia , ranked 26th overall, has one of the most efficient economies in the region with flexible labour markets, relatively undistorted goods markets and public institutions which in many areas ...

Kyodo reports that a dead Holstein cow in Hokkaido has been confirmed to have tested positive for mad cow disease - the 29th case in Japan, farm ministry officials said Thursday: The 6-year-old cow tested positive in separate screenings at a Hokkaido animal health center and at the National Institute of Animal Health outside Tokyo. Its meat and internal organs will be incinerated, said the officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The Hokkaido government said it will analyze the cow's feed to look into the route of inflection of the disease, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The cow was born in the town of Horonobe, northern Hokkaido, in June 2000, before the Japanese government imposed a ban in 2001 on meat-and-bone meal feed suspected to be a cause of the disease. It was raised at a farm in the town of Nakagawa, also northern Hokkaido.

I love the way young (?) designers are incorporating environmental themes and the ubiqous LOHAS (Lifestyle of health and sustainability) in new projects. Recently, a web magazine called Greenz.jp has been launched as a web community magazine. Some popular keywords are "detox", "organic", and "eco tour". Have a look, Greenz is showing photos from a German Eco Village, Okodorf Sieben Linden . This must look terribly exotic to most people in Tokyo!

At the Organic Fair, I found a booth from Japan Organic Cotton Association, with a great exhibition of organic t-shirts. They have asked 60 designers to participate under the theme "I support organic cotton". JOCA has a complete list here .

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)