The Dumplings sunk Chinese frozen foods repution in Japan

A four person Japanese family in Chiba, just outside Tokyo, enjoyed their fried dumplings at home, Kyoza, as they are call in Japan, are mostly made in China. Within the next 30 minutes, they were rushed into a nearby hospital. Food poison, they were told. Three people recovered quickly, however, five year old daughter was more serous and had to stay in hospital.

It is certainly something the Chinese didn't want to hear, especially most of the country are fighting a once in 50 year snowstorm, and next Thursday, everyone is supposed to celebrate the coming of Year of Mouse, and the Olympics.

However, Japanese are not easy to let it go, and the government has asked Chinese government to help to investigate. More cases and more victims are being reported, Is it going to develop a Kyoza war?

Jiaozi (dumplings in English, Kyoza in Japanese) is also a traditional food for most Chinese families to enjoy during the New Year, it indicates the celebration of the New, the better and lucky. I certainly hope most Chinese will find their dumplings won't cause so much trouble.

Even they do, does Anyone care?

Japan's Next Export to China

Who has ever thought about the next export to China from Japan is Ski instructions and Ski culture. However, with the ever growing China's new rich are hungry for anything that is fun and new, no one should be surprised to see that around Beijing, within the past year or two, 15 ski facilities were opened.

Japanese instructors are warmly welcomed in Beijing, however, to their biggest surprise, the facility is so well maintained and yet the skiers don't know how to stop in a safe manner.

Interested to know more and see a video, check out a TBS news clip (in Japanese) Here.

Road to Olympics: Water Cubic Opens

From today, I will post more on Beijing Olympics, after all, it is only a seven months and 200 some days away. Today is the opening and the tragedy:

Water Cubic, the nickname for water sports including swimming, diving and synchronized swimming debuts. It is also the largest in the World, which holds over 17,500 audience.


Bird Nest, the nickname for the main stage for Olympics, hosting the opening ceremony, has seen at least two workers' death from start of the construction, British press reported that more than 10 deaths and the more tragic than the deaths is that the government has hidden them until been exposed by the press.

Foutune Cookie-who invented, Japanese or Chinese?

Have you ever wondered that a stable in Chinese restaurants everywhere except in China, Fortune Cookies are invented by Japanese?

I find this article very interesting, Check out for more from the New York Times.

Japan's Scandal is China to blame

Snowstorm swept China, even Shanghai saw first snow accumulation in a decade



At least, Shanghai has something other than snow to look at, Kobe based industry sponsored a fashion show



Twice more Divorce in China than previous year, the reason is both sides



Big scandal in Japan regarding labeling of recycle paper can be traced back to China

Monday Briefing-What's on This Week?

Look ahead this week:

On Sunday, at age of 38, Hashishita became the youngest governor in Japan, he was elected to be Osaka governor.

Monday night at 9Pm(eastern time), President Bush makes his last State of Union address, economy is thought be a dominating topic.

this week, a big snowstorm swept the many parts in China, even Shanghai, where considered to be South and has seen a snow pileup in a decade, saw a 3 cm snow accumulation. As use of air conditioner jumped, a shortage of electricity in the mid of winter caught many unprepared.

Wednesday, U.S. Fed reserve is to decide on rate, another half point cut is expected, however, the expectation is such that any cut below half point will only disappoint.

Chinese New Year is only 10 days away, millions will hit the road from now on until Feb 6th, the New Year's Eve, when every family will gather to eat together around a round table. To get back home, many travels thousand miles and crammed like sardine. (I was one, been there done that)

Tokyo Stock Market Sandwiched, Toyota No.1

Still sandwiched for Japan between the U.S. and China? Today, Tokyo Stock Exchange index-Nikkei 225 is lifted by U.S. Fed emergency rate cut and stopped by Shanghai's stock market big drop. 13,000 level was broke earlier encouraged by the bigger than expected rate cut of .75 from Washington, however, Shanghai's market dropped even with the good news, Nikkei finished with 12829, failed to take back 13,000 level.

Another note on Stocks, Chinese search engine sailed into Japanese market. Nasdaq listed Baidu (Bidu) starts providing service in Japan and in Japanese language.

Is Bank of China, China's major overseas finance player being affected/suffered a big loss by US subprime loan crisis? Chinese said No.

Toyota takes the world NO.1 auto sales from GM, that's for sure.

Blogging is definitely a BIG THING for Japanese celebrities, popular singer Ayumi Hamazaki disclosed in her blog that she lost her voice, then today actress Mariya Yamada announced her marriage in her blog.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

History drags on, Piracy of Shinkansen

Do you like history? Have you wondered how Japan became the No. 1 in Asia and China came into a semi-colony to Japan and the U.S. and other European powers? If you do, you may like the living history series, the cool thing is you can view in Korean, Japanese, Chinese or English. Check it out.

Another note on History, Is China distorting the display of history about Nanjing Massacre? Japanese government thinks so. Japanese embassy in China has asked the Nanjing Massacre Museum to change certain displays.

One Chinese Ad company got in trouble with a photo of Shinkansen, the famed Japanese bullet train. The photo was found inside Beijing international Airport and the Chinese copied from Internet and made into a bulletin board without obtaining an appropriate permission from Japan Railways. Such a small world and certainly a case study in Intellectual Property class.

Lookahead: Olympics

Japan disclosed a sportsware specially designed for this August's Beijing Olympics.

Chinese can now travel with families to Japan as Japanese embassy just relieved its visa rules.

According to a recent campaign in China, you can exercise your brain by pinching your hands.

China and India get closer

Japan shoudn't have to choose between America and China

Japan is sandwiched, willingly or unwillingly.

On the one side, you have America, the alley and a nuclear umbrella holder, the biggest economy in the world and consumer of Japanese autos and electronics, on the side is China, the growing power with purchasing power and competitors for resources.

Does Japan have to choose one side over the another, the Answer is NO. Even Japan is more closely allied with Washington over Beijing, it doesn't mean that Tokyo has to listen every world Mr. Bush has to say. On the same note, Japan doesn't have to feel less secure walking too close to Beijing, worrying about the triangle balance will be broken.

A confident Japan is the Key to breakthrough the sandwiched situation. No one knows more than self, Japan certainly can have the influence and flexibility needed to move forward, however, Tokyo does need to have a determination and vision to do so.

Have a Great Weekend!

A record number of people visited Shrines this New Year

Shanghai Commodity exchange starts trading gold futures, and it once went up 1o% in the first day.

To meet demand of watching Beijing Olympics games, NEC and Toshiba are developing Laptop computers that can receive digital TV singnals and record up to 109 hours program.

A Chinese woman who is a suspect of killing her Japanese husband is arrested again in Japan.

A Japanese diplomat in Beijing was tipped off to be a customer of a massage parlor by Chinese police.

Tokyo governor and a China critic, Shintaro Ishihara received an invitation to Bejing Olympics.

This New Year, more people than ever visited Shrines. to be exact, 98 million people prayed in one of the shrine. A better year ahead? The most popular shrines are Meiji in Tokyo and Kawasaki Taishi in awasaki.

Monday Briefing

Happy the New Day of the week!

Pressure on North Korea mounts on NK's failure to reports its progress on denuclearization project
Electronics Show opens at Los Vegas, several ultra-thin TVs from Japanese makers debut with cool features.

Tokyo stocks went down again, with a nearly 200 points below, hopes for a recovery at the second half of the year is uncertain. IPOs also reduces by 40% in year 2007 compared to a year ago.

In contrast, Chinese economy is estimated to grow 11% in 2008.

Look ahead year 2008

with today's big selloff and Japan's Tokyo Stock Exchange Index lost over 600 points, people are wondering if Japan's economy is going to be dragged down by the U.S. and subprime crisis, or it will be liftoff from still going strong Chinese economic engine?

U.S.'s economy is dragging down further with a worse job report and even President Bush calls for a meeting to discuss the economy.

What's amazing country America! Being a son of Arkansas mother and a Kenyan father, Obama won the first step to a presidency.

While in America there is a Mandarin Chinese boom, in Taiwan, goes a Japanese culture boom, Anime and TV drama among the hot hits.

Chinese and Japanese historians meet to have a third round of joint study of history.

America's Next President

Who's next American President? Japanese pay no less attention to the question than people in Iowa.

India and China increasingly need to think and work together

G-8 leaders summit will be held at Toyako, Japan. Mr. Fukuda will play host to Mr. Bush and others, however, the most shining star will be Russian President Putin, who was recently selected by Times as the man of the year.

Can Japanese economy resume upward trend, even seems crawling compared to Chinese economy, but still growing in year 2008? The question will also be partially answered by China, how Chinese business can create opportunities for Japanese large and mid-sized enterprises will be in the next 12 months.

Lookback Year of 2007

Happy New Year to you all!

I am starting today to write on significant developments and news on China-Japan-US triangle relations in the past year. As you may recall, it was a year filled with the good, the beautiful as well as the bad, even not quite as ugly.

On the top of the list is Exchange of visits from Japanese and Chinese leaders. Mr. Fukuda visited Beijing on Dec 27th, in a return to Chinese Prime Minister Wen's visit to Tokyo in April.

Economy side, for the fist time in history, exchange rate of Chinese currency RMB climbs to 7.2 to 1 dollar, highest level ever.

However, dispute over East China Sea gas reserve is a huge cloud hanging over the two energy consuming giants. In September, Chinese war planes were reported to have fly over oil fields in the disputed area over 40 times, and trigged Japanese Self Defense planes to get ready. Both Japan and China have discussed the issue at highest levels, however, they are yet to reach an agreement.

Japanese media are turning more attention to China over next year's Beijing Olympics, the weakness of China's environment, ever growing gap between the have and havenot will be highlighted along with the glorify of the medals and torches.