As
a Japanophile, it was only natural that I would become addicted
to "Iron Chef."
The
Japanese cooking show has become one of Food
Network's biggest hits – even drawing more viewers on
occasion than the seemingly omnipresent Emeril
Lagasse.
The
shorthand description of "Iron Chef" is that it is Julia
Child meets the World Wrestling Federation. Each episode features
a challenger taking on one of four Iron Chefs, each of whom specializes
in one style of cuisine (Japanese, Chinese, French and Italian).
The combatants have one hour to prepare their dishes, all utilizing
a theme ingredient, which is announced at the start the contest.
Theme
ingredients can range from the mundane (bananas)
to the bizarre (anglerfish),
and the chefs utilize expensive delicacies like caviar, truffles
and foie gras with abandon.
Americans
seem attracted to the show's inherent campiness, for while the Japanese
take "Iron Chef" very seriously (one half expects some
defeated chefs to commit seppuku), there is little on Japanese TV
that doesn't seem campy to American eyes.
But
"Iron Chef" also revels in political incorrectness.
The
most popular "Iron Chef" episode, according
to Food Network viewers, is the Octopus Battle, which features
live octopuses squirming for their lives as Iron Chef Italian Masahiko
Kobe and challenger Hiromichi Yoneda try to beat them into submission.
People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the whacko "animal rights"
group that doesn't want you to drink milk, tried to protest the
Octopus Battle,
not that anyone really noticed or cared.
The
Japanese are unfazed by criticism from the likes of PETA and carry
on with their contests. (Although "Iron Chef" is no longer
in regular production, Fuji TV still produces occasional specials,
like the recent 21st
Century Battle co-produced with Food Network.)
Each
battle is a showcase of classical virtues like honor and determination.
And, ultimately, it's all about winning. Occasional ties are settled
by brutal 30-minute cookoffs. This isn't a show for soccer moms.
They couldn't handle the pressure.
Already
enthralled with "Iron Chef," I was pleasantly surprised
to stumble across the Web site of one of the show's regular food
tasters.
Shinichiro
Kurimoto is a semi-regular judge on "Iron Chef," having
tasted more dishes than anyone except food critic Asako Kishi. He
is also a member of Japan's Lower Diet, representing Tokyo's 3rd
District.
A
former member of the Liberal Democratic Party, Kurimoto bolted in
1999. He is now a member of the oddly named Internet Breakthrough
Party of Japan.
If
the few broken-English-language articles on Kurimoto's
Web site are any indication, Kurimoto is a believer in what
Antiwar.com's Justin Raimondo
calls "market
nationalism." It's an ideology that combines a belief in
free markets with opposition to the American Empire.
For
instance, almost alone among Japan's politicos, Kurimoto seems to
grasp the roots of his country's continued financial troubles.
This
passage from one of Kurimoto's essays reads as if it could have
been written by Ludwig von Mises
or Murray
Rothbard:
Most
of the times, our (economic) therapy was a Kamikaze-style patchwork.
During the bubble economy in the 80s, the financial institutions
were so exhilarated that they kept making loans indiscriminately,
knowing that most of such loans would be bad assets in the future.
And:
I
don't think that Mr. Greenspan is able to wield much effective
influence over the American economy as a whole. What he could
do is not much more than a lip-service maneuvering of the market.
Of course, there is no one in Japan comparable even with a mini-Greenspan.
When it comes to the financial and stock markets, the problem
is far more fundamental and even fatal. In short, there is too
much, far too much money circulating out there. I would like to
invite your attention to the fact that it takes 2,000 trillion
yen to buy up all the stocks of the world, while the money circulating
around the world at any one moment amounts to 5,000 trillion yen.
A
monetary explanation for inflation and boom-bust cycles? Kurimoto-san
could teach a lot of American economists a thing or two.
Like
Japan's new prime minister, Junichero Koizumi, Kurimoto has declared
war on the entrenched, socialist Japanese bureaucracy.
Kurimoto
writes:
Japan's
politics during the period between its economic growth including
the bubble era and its collapse was, in a sense, a kind of socialism,
in which regulatory control was tightened and loosened as bureaucrats
and politicians considered necessary. The bureaucracy preferred
to regulate business, and the conservative politicians were their
cronies. The corrupt relations between the two, however, did not
come to surface as the country's economic vitality was so powerful
that the political system managed to hide its inherent flaws.
But
it was a completely different story after the Administration forced
the bubble economy to burst. They were too slow in deregulation,
thereby wearing out the private sector's vitality to a great degree.
And because of that, Japan fell behind its competitors in the
development of telecommunication technology. It was relegated
to a second class position among the G5 nations. It happened to
be the time when those powerful financial captains started their
voracious speculations on the stock markets worldwide for gigantic
gains in the middle of a global money glut.
Kurimoto
is also steadfastly against American imperialism. He blames the
United States (rightly) for encouraging bad economic policies in
Japan. Those policies drove interest rates to zero, exacerbating
the real problems. And he has no use for American militarism:
I
visited Iraq this September to find the country suffering from
an extremely cruel economic bashing imposed by the United States
in the name of "U.N. resolutions."
There
is much more on Kurimoto's Web site, but it's all in Japanese. So,
I don't know if his libertarian-sounding remarks are typical or
not. (The English part of his web site is also out of date, so there
is nothing on what he thinks about the new prime minister.)
But
the next time I'm enjoying "Iron Chef," I'll nevertheless
take pleasure in knowing that the dapper food taster in the tux
just might be one of us.
June
11, 2001
Franklin
Harris [send him e-mail]
writes for
The Decatur (Ala.) Daily and frequently covers Japanese animation
(anime) and comics (manga) in his weekly entertainment column. His
Web site is www.pulpculture.net.
He
would like to thank Stephanie Masumura (a.k.a. IronSteph), whose
wonderful Iron Chef Compendium
made this article possible.
