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In This Issue
Word Play
Practice Japanese while you read "Fast, Cheap and Suddenly
Chic: Home-Grown Fast Food Steps Into the Mainstream," in Japanese,
followed by the English translation.
In English:
Fast, Cheap and Suddenly Chic:
Home-Grown Fast Food Steps Into the Mainstream
Like many countries, fast food in Japan is for people
between appointments, late for a concert, or in search of a
quick bite. Usually speed comes at the expense of variety
as imported versions offer hamburgers and fries or fried
chicken while indigenous shops offer bowls of noodles or
rice. Recently, however, people have been able to choose
from a broader range of meals including Japanese, Chinese,
Western and ethnic dishes from across Asia.
The traditional image of noodle stands and other shops is
low-key and far from the fashion forefront. Some have only
a counter with no seats. Corporate foot soldiers or
students and blue-collar workers tend to be the ones
slurping down their noodles or scoffing their gyudon (beef
and onion stew on a bowl of rice). Young women rarely go
into these shops. Efforts by the fast-food chains to make
their outlets more appealing to the fashion- and heath-
conscious have brightened up the décor and created roomier
seating.
The shops have also introduced a more balance menu to
satisfy women and families. One suburban gyudon chain
offers traditional boiled-vegetable and tofu dishes as well
as a miso soup full of healthy ingredients. It appeals to
children with kid-sized portions of favorites like curry
and rice with a new free giveaway every month. Another
gyudon chain offers set meals of a nourishing soup of
grated tofu, taro potatoes, and daikon (Japanese radish)
for those wanting more than slices of beef on rice. To
entice female diners more interested in variety than
volume, a chain of noodle shops serve miniature portions of
oyako-don (chicken, onion, and egg on rice) and kakiage-don
(vegetable tempura on rice).
These innovations and others like combination plates,
choice of sizes and organically grown ingredients have paid
off as women, couples and families patronize these
restaurants. Unlike many family restaurant chains, sales
are steadily increasing. Stability is not guaranteed,
however, as a large hamburger chain has begun slashing
prices in half on weekdays. Japan’s fast food, usually
served in ceramic bowls must be washed, a process that eats
into the shops’ earnings. Unless they can keep costs down,
indigenous fast-food businesses could be out-priced.
Based on text originally edited by Japan Echo Inc. for
"Trends in Japan"
Source:
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Japanese News Beat
Japan: Politics and the Prime Minister
Because of the recent elections in the United States, we
thought it a good time to glance at the Japanese political
system and the man who took over last April as Prime
Minister: Yoshiro Mori.
Mori was elected to his post by the Japanese Diet
("Kokkai")-- a Parliament composed of a 500-member House of
Representatives and a smaller and less powerful House of
Councilors. He was not put in office by a general election,
although it is possible for such an election to be held in
order to put a public stamp of approval on the political
arrangements that have already been made.
Japan’s form of government is a constitutional monarchy,
with Emperor Akihito serving as symbolic head of state. The
ruling political party is the Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP), of which Mori became president upon assuming the
office of Prime Minister; but he was obligated to create a
coalition government along with the New Komeito-Reformers’
Network and the New Conservative Party.
A burly former rugby player who has encouraged professional
athletes to run for office, the 63-year-old Mori has been
unfairly branded as a political pragmatist with "the heart
of a flea and the brain of a shark."
His brusque and outspoken demeanor has given offense on
more than one occasion, and his involvement with a
political scandal in the 1980s did not make the public feel
more warmly towards him. His commitment, however, to
educational and economic reform coupled with his ability to
hold together a fragmented system of political parties,
give him leadership qualities that Japan surely needs as it
enters the third millennium.
Sources:
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JapaneseNow! Product Tips
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