"japan" news and stories

Japanese officials have found radioactive iodine at 7.5 million times the legal limit in seawater near the crippled Fukushima plant. That staggering number has prompted the Japanese government to set radiation safety standards for the first time for seafood -- 2,000 bequerels of iodine per kilogram of fish.

Kounago fish caught on Friday, approximately 50 miles from the nuclear plant, were found to contain 4,080 bequerels of radioactive iodine-131 and 526 bequerels of cesium 137. According to the Wall Street Journal, those results were the first clear indication that fish were being contaminated as a result of leaks from the Daiichi plant.

Nichols Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at SUNY at Stony Brook told the New York Times that according to some radiation safety guidelines, people could eat 35 pounds of fish per year containing the level of cesium 137 detected in the Japanese fish.

"So you're not going to die from eating it right away, but we're getting to levels where I would think twice about eating it," he was quoted as saying.

Officials have discovered trace levels of radioactive Iodine-131 in milk samples from Washington state and California, but stress that amounts are still 5,000 times lower than the limit set by the Food and Drug Administration. That should easy worry for consumers concerned that radiation from the damaged Fukushima plant in Japan will affect milk produced in the U.S.

"We don't make light of radiation. People want more information, but it's important to put things in context," Al Lundeen, spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) told Slashfood. "We have had a positive sampling of Iodine-131, but it was minuscule. It's a trace amount compared to other things like watching TV or flying on a plane, where people are also exposed to radiation."

According to the Associated Press, the FDA and EPA announced they had found radiation in milk from Spokane, Wash. on Friday, while the CDPH announced they found similar results from milk obtained at a dairy in San Luis Obispo County on Monday.

"We are going to continue to monitor the situation," said Lundeen. "We test milk because that's the food where radiation can be detected most quickly, but we're testing air samples as well. What we know now is the amount of radiation detected should not force people to hesitate to drink milk or anything else."

There's more grim news coming out of Japan this morning as officials there widen the evacuation band near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant over concerns that additional radiation may leak from the damaged facility. Earlier this week, Tokyo parents were warned not to give infants tap water, which has tested positive for radioactive iodine; and despite import bans, some Japanese vegetables that have tested positive for radiation found their way to Singapore.

Radiation fears are also migrating to seafood. Japanese officials said they have detected higher levels of radiation in ocean waters near the damaged nuclear power plant, fueling fears on the impact this may have on Japan's fishing industry. The catastrophe has left the famed Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo reeling.

Should the situation at the Fukushima plant worsen, the fallout from the disaster could have complications for some of our own seafood. Philadelphia science blogger Bix Webber posted a troubling graphic on her website earlier this week: a New York Times interactive map that shows travel projections should a plume of radiation head east towards the U.S. Underneath it, Webber shows another graphic illustrating the migratory patterns for Pacific salmon. They're eerily similar.

Which leaves us with the money question: Could salmon stocks (and other species) be impacted should the situation worsen in Japan?

We all know what to expect from a visit to Denny's: a stack of pretty good pancakes, maybe even a Grand Slam breakfast if the mood strikes. Japan has a Denny's too, but instead of sausage links and hash browns, they're serving up a bizarre hybrid menu that offers up everything from ramen noodles to French classics.

It's not totally out of left field -- after all, Japan has a penchant for giving even the most mundane food a twist. But making the leap from fried eggs to a "special truffle menu," well, that's quite a departure. According to Eater, "the newest item on offer is Beef Rossini style with liver pie, a dish of New Zealand Beef topped with foie gras and sliced truffles, served with a red wine demi-glace reduction."

Though you've likely never heard of it, it's a French standard. At 1380 yen, or $15, it's fairly affordable, yet...do you really want to eat demi-glace in a booth at Denny's?

We can just imagine the possibilities if there ever was an American version of the hit Japanese reality TV show Kintanachelin: Paris Hilton, propped up next to an East L.A. taco truck eating tongue quesadillas. Or Donald Trump holding court at Shopsin's -- back when it was in the West Village, if at all possible. Whatever you do, Hollywood, just don't hire Guy Fieri to host.

Leave it to the Japanese to take our all-American obsession with dive restaurants, add a dash of highbrow culture-clash to the mix, a few laughs and serve up the latest reality show craze. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Kintanachelin takes "slumming it" to a whole new level. Fueled by a weakened economy and a hunger for all things both delicious and cheap, the show plops a variety of stars -- dressed up to the nines, no less -- into the seats of some of Japan's grungiest, most cramped eating establishments.