SEP’ 2012 Japan’s premier English language magazine Since 1970 EAT TOKYO! LET WEEKENDER TAKE YOU ON A CULINARY TOUR OF THE CITY AGENDA CYC L I N G INTERVIEWS We select the biggest We meet the women Fashion designer shows, events and parties shaking up the Neil Barratt and in September velodrome in Japan Electrolux Japan GM ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Latest APAC news from the Asia Daily Wire, People Parties & Places with Bill Hersey and much more... Tokyo_Weekender Dergisi.pdf 1 22.08.2012 14:51 C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Tokyo_Weekender Dergisi.pdf 1 22.08.2012 14:51 C M Y CM MY CY CMY K SEPTEMBER 2012 CONTENTS 21 EAT TOKYO Penniless or loaded, we have got some serious recommendations for you. 14 30 19 GIRLS KEIRIN CAKES IN TOKYO NEIL BARRETT Women are taking to the velodrome and Got a sweet tooth? Us too - check out a From London to Milan to Tokyo, the challenging a very masculine world. selection of our sugar high favourites. British designer talks to Weekender. 11 Asia Daily Wire 24 & 28 Top Chinese Dining 36 People, Parties, Places A roundup of all the top APAC news of the Peking Duck with over 100 years of tradition What’s going on on the Tokyo social past month. and more fine Chinese food in Ginza. scene? With Bill Hersey. 12 Electrolux 32 Eels 42 Agenda How can the Swedish company get ahead Oak flamed Nagoya style unagi in Tokyo It’s almost safe to leave the sanctity of in the Japanese market? slips down very nicely indeed. your air-con so get out there and enjoy! 22 The Gyoza Hunter 34 Screen 44 Back in the Day Philip Kendall will stop at nothing in Worth the wait? A few good reasons to A snapshot of Weekender from 1982. pursuit of the perfect Gyoza. head to the cinema this month. SEPTEMBER 2012 Publisher Bulbous Cell Media Group Chairman Ray Pedersen Executive Producer Asi Rinestine Editor Matthew Holmes Art Director Liam Ramshaw Business Development Director Kotaro Toda Senior Sales Executive Nobu (Nick) Nakazawa Account Executive Ohad Elbaz Media Consultants Mary Rudow Matthew Hernon Web Consultant Greg Culos Society Bill Hersey Editorial Associates Annamarie Sasagawa, Vivian Morelli, Ayako Fujiwara, Christopher O’Keeffe, Mace Bertumen, Jun Mooney IT Manager Nick Adams Development Manager Stephane Boudoux Finance & Admin Vika Maslyuk Web Development Amit Raj Baral DBA Iryna Sundutova FREE EST. Corky Alexander, 1970 Published by Bulbous Cell Media Group www.bulbouscell.com Published monthly at the Regency Shinsaka Building, 5th floor SPACE 8-5-8 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052 (03) 6846-5615 / (03) 6846-5616 (fax) [email protected] To subscribe to the Tokyo Weekender, please call (03) 6846-5615 or email: [email protected] For ad sales inquiries, please call (03) 6846-5615 or email: [email protected] www.tokyoweekender.com Opinions expressed by Weekender contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher SEP’ 2012 Japan’s premier English language magazine Since 1970 EAT TOKYO! Follow Tokyo Weekender on Twitter: LET WEEKENDER TAKE YOU ON A CULINARY TOUR OF THE CITY @weekenderjapan AGENDA CYCLING INTERVIEWS We select the biggest We meet the women Fashion designer shows, events and parties shaking up the Neil Barratt and in September velodrome in Japan Electrolux Japan GM Like us on Facebook: ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Latest APAC news from the Asia Daily Wire, People Parties & Places with Bill Hersey and much more... www.facebook.com/tokyo.weekender ASIA DAILY WIRE | NEWS | 11 > COMPILATION IslandS Of CONfuSION: Japanese government offers $2bn for islands Japan has reportedly entered negotiations for a $2bn purchase of the Senkaku islands, administered by Japan since 1895, from the Kurihara family, who own four of the five islands and lease them to the government. Hong Kong activists given heroes’ welcome Seven Hong Kong activists who sia Daily Wire is your go-to place for all the latest news from across the attempted to plant a Chinese flag Asia Pacific region. Covering business, culture, entertainment, sports on the Senkaku islands, known as Diaoyu in China, returned home. and breaking news, Asia Daily Wire is updated round the clock in real Their boat, “Defend the Diaoyu” time and picks and chooses the best headlines from sources across II, had been detained by the AAsia—doing all the hard work for you. Here is a roundup of some of the ADW Japanese Coast Guard. Editor’s picks from the past month... S.Korea turns down Japan’s ICJ joint suit proposal South Korea has turned down Man mistakes Japanese Japan’s proposal to resolve the son for monkey journalist two countries’ territorial dispute through legal measures, reports and shoots him killed in Syria the Asahi Shimbun. Japan will A Nepalese man Veteran war take the case to the international has shot and killed correspondent tribunal unilaterally. his 12 year old son, Mika Yamamoto Japan TV suspends S. Korean drama mistaking him for one of the monkeys he was of The Japan Press was killed in the field trying to drive away from his crops. Monkeys in Aleppo. She was fatally wounded by A TV station announced it would pull a South Korean drama a are a menace to the man’s maize and his son crossfire on August 20 while travelling with week before its airing. South was helping him by climbing a nearby tree the rebel Free Syrian Army. The 45-year old Korean actor Song Il Guk had when Gupta Bahadur opened fire. Nepali specialized in conflict zone coverage and joined a relay swim to the islands farmers rarely shoot monkeys to kill as the covered the war in Afghanistan and the US known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan. creatures are thought to be sacred. invasion of Iraq in 2003. China protesters smash Japanese made police cars India mobile Indian PM aims Protesters smashed up a Honda- users: “only 5 for Mars made police car in Shenzen messages a day” Prime Minister and businesses with Japanese In an attempt to Singh announced connections were attacked across “deter the spread his plan to China as activists from Japan landed on a disputed island to of rumours and commission a stake their claim. hate messages of the kind that led to high-tech space mission to Mars, saying, “This panic among people from the Northeast,” spaceship to Mars will be a huge step for us Chinese media attacks US-Japan Senkaku drill according to the Times of India, the in the area of science and technology.” With Chinese media attacked a military government has ordered citizens, for the blackouts and corruption controversies in drill between the US and Japan next 12 days, not to send more than five their midst, Indians criticized the government which saw 2,000 US Marines and 40 Japanese troops taking SMSs a day. Rumours of unrest caused and urged it to instead focus instead on basic part in exercises on the islands 30,000 people to flee Bangalore in panic. infrastructure and sanitation. of Guam and Tinian, including a simulation of an island assault. Navigation Philippines pull through together for South Korea to remove part of monument Northern Sea recover from South Korea has said it will remove part of a monument it Development is floods constructed on Takeshima, an fast on the heels Twelve days of island also claimed by Japan. The of global warming non-stop monsoon monument was built without as the receding Arctic ice paves the way rains submerged the Philippine capital, permission but a Republic of for international trade. The Northern Sea forcing millions to flee their homes and Korea engraving will remain. Route, which traverses the Arctic Circle, killing at least 11 people. Through Twitter, reduces the distance between Europe and authorities were able to get information on East Asia by 40%. According to Norway- rescue operations and missing persons but based Tschudi Shipping Co., vessels use the the lack of disaster management has For all the big news of 2012 1,000 tons less fuel and the journey costs seriously cramped the situation in most updated live, visit: $650,000 less than the Suez Canal route. areas. www.asiadailywire.com 12 | BuSINESS | ELECTROLUX INTERVIEW: “We’ve had vacuums that have been quiet before (the Ultra Silencer), and ones that have had a lot of power (the Ultra-one), but no-one up until now has managed to combine those two features in to something so compact. We are not talking very small, it weighs just under 4 ½ kilograms so it is an acceptable size that ELECTROLuX the Japanese consumer wants. How can the Swedes compete with Japanese makers on their home turf? The unique thing about this vacuum was that By Matthew Hernon apart from the Swedish designers, nobody outside Japan was allowed to have any input A global leader in household appliances, So why have Electrolux struggled to make in to it. This is the first time we have done Electrolux is most famous for inventing an impact in Japan? Of course fierce something like this. At the moment it is just the first domestic use vacuum cleaner. competition hasn’t helped. Domestic brands being sold here, but it will soon go on sale in Celebrating its 100th anniversary such as Toshiba, Panasonic and Hitachi Korea, Taiwan and Europe.” this year, the company is well known dominate the market, while in terms of throughout the world for its innovative vacuum cleaner sales, they are also well Thom is determined to make Electrolux a and durable products, yet for Japanese behind rivals Dyson, who sell major player in Japan, a country he consumers it is a largely unfamiliar around a quarter of million believes has enormous potential.