Most conflicts are wars of attrition and are no less so for the fact that attrition sometimes happens very quickly. In recent times, Argentines feel like they have suffered every imaginable indignity as the economy struggles through a three-year recession. A dozen naked men and one naked woman walked outof the ryokan and sauntered along a pathway to a steaming hot pool. All of a sudden, Britain is overrun by Japanese artists and entertainers. It is turning up in cosmetics, soap, cologne and even tea-bags.
Green tea is the latest, and possibly oldest, panacea.
Italy's general election campaign is set to wind up next week with a grand television finale. In spite of being quintessentially Japanese, sake is enjoying growing popularity outside its home country. A first-time visitor to Japan might be concerned at not being able to tell sushi from sashimi, but this does not really need to be a problem. A sharp decline in employment numbers pushed short-term Treasuries higher on Friday as investors bet on another interest rate cut. Sappi, the paper and pulp producer, said on Friday it would close its loss-making US paper mill in Mobile, Alabama US, by the end of the year.