JAPAN: Kit Kat Kaleidoscope: Far-Out Flavors From Japan

Why stop at just chocolate and crispy wafers? In Japan, Kit Kats come in many flavors, including ginger ale, soy sauce, green tea and banana. May-Ying Lam/NPR

May 10, 2010

by Bill Chappell

The Kit Kats you find in American stores offer a quick fix of chocolate and crispy wafers. But in Japan, Kit Kats go far beyond chocolate, with flavors like ginger ale, soy sauce, crème brulee and banana. NPR's Lynn Neary talks with Tokyo-based reporter Lucy Craft about the unique candy market in Japan.

And to see how those flavors translate to other countries — like the U.S. — we asked NPR staff members to try some samples and tell us what they think.

Kit Kat Taste Test: Notes From A Crunching

With such a wide range of flavors needing to be sampled, we lined up testers from across NPR's divisions. To encourage natural and objective responses, subjects tasted the candy in separate sessions.

Participants: Steve Inskeep (host, Morning Edition), Jamie Tarabay (National Desk), Lourdes Garcia-Navarro (Foreign Desk), Jon Hamilton (Science Desk), Linda Holmes (Arts Desk), and Patrick Jarenwattananon (Music Desk).

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Royal Milk Tea

Steve Inskeep takes his Kit Kat tasting job seriously.   May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: Like tea in the Mideast.

Tarabay: There's something in the middle of this that's harking back to my childhood.

Garcia-Navarro: Tastes like boarding school tea — comforting but not very nice.

Hamilton: Plain weird.

Holmes: I don't even know what that taste is, but I was not a fan.

Jarenwattananon: Tastes like a wafer from childhood.

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Soy Sauce

May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: Could use a little soy sauce.

Tarabay: It smells gross. I can't taste anything. It smells weird. It's not even savory.

Garcia-Navarro: Beyond gross. It tastes like sushi that's gone off.

Hamilton: Falsely advertised. Perhaps a bit of salt.

Holmes: It smells very much like soy sauce. It's a very odd taste to me.

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Cantaloupe

Linda Holmes takes a tiny bite of one of the wafers. May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: Mysterious.

Tarabay (making a face after being told the flavor too late): Oh my God. I don't eat cantaloupe.

Garcia-Navarro: Unusual but edible.

Hamilton: Tastes like an after-dinner liqueur.

Holmes: Like a Jolly Rancher, but the aftertaste is intensely not good.

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Corn

May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: Creepy.

Tarabay: I can smell the corn in that ... a bit of corn-flakishness in there.

Hamilton: A Kit Kat for the heartland.

Garcia-Navarro: Why would you ever make a Kit Kat this flavor?

Holmes: That is the NASTIEST THING I HAVE EVER EATEN.

Jarenwattananon: The only thing corny about this is my response.

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Raspberry Passionfruit

Patrick Jarenwattananon marvels at the wonders of flavored Kit Kats.  May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: A hint of tart.

Tarabay: It smells like Cherry Ripe. [A Cadbury candy bar, it turns out — ed.]

Hamilton: Actually tastes like one of those chocolate-covered cherries.

Holmes: Appropriately, it tastes like a slightly fruity Kit Kat.

Jarenwattananon: Complex, fruity, dark. Yes, I used these words to describe a Kit Kat.

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Crème Brulee

May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: Starts out very crème, then gets a little too brulee.

Tarabay: Now I'm disappointed, because it smells like it.

Hamilton: Torch the top and you've got yourself a fancy dessert.

Garcia-Navarro: Transports me to France. Not.

Holmes: Smells fake-caramelly.

Jarenwattananon: That was the best high fructose corn syrup I've had in a minute.

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Golden Citrus

Jon Hamilton contemplates what he's just tasted.  May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: Tastes like Starburst.

Tarabay: It's very sherbety, but it smells like a Starburst.

Hamilton: A wake-up call!

Garcia-Navarro: The best one so far.

Holmes: Tastes like gum or citrus candy. Or vitamin C tablets. Not bad.

Jarenwattananon: I didn't think that could exist.

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Green Tea

Jamie Tarabay takes a sniff of the green tea Kit Kat.   May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: Bland.

Tarabay: A whisper of steeped green tea — altogether pleasant.

Garcia-Navarro: Yummy.

Holmes: I like this one. Not trying too hard. It has a slight aftertaste of something sinister, though. ;

Jarenwattananon: Disappointingly, neither here nor there. So much wasted potential.

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Intense Roasted Soybean

May-Ying Lam/NPR

Inskeep: No.

Tarabay: It's a very rich chocolate. Nice and rich, and darker.

Garcia-Navarro: Peanut buttery, but just not as nice.

Hamilton: It does invoke the classic Kit Kat.

Holmes: It's actually not that intense. It's ... soybeany.

Jarenwattananon: False advertising.

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Strawberry Cheesecake

May-Ying Lam/NPR

Tarabay: I can't taste the strawberry or the cheesecake in this.

Garcia-Navarro: Yummy.

Jarenwattananon: Tastes like fake strawberry flavor and not particularly good fake strawberry flavor.

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Cafe Au Lait

May-Ying Lam/NPR

Tarabay: As soon as you put your tongue on it, it tastes like black coffee with milk in it.

Hamilton: Smooth and delicious.

Holmes: This bears absolutely no resemblance to coffee, but I wouldn't spit it out.

Jarenwattananon: Meh.

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Banana

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro after tasting one of the flavored Kit Kats. May-Ying Lam/NPR

Garcia-Navarro: Foul.

Jarenwattananon: That's some good use of Yellow No. 5.

[Others declined to sample.]

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JAPAN: Japan government denies dropping U.S. base deadline

Hercules aircraft are parked on the tarmac at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan on Okinawa May 3, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Issei Kato

Mon May 10, 2010 6:15am EDT

Isabel Reynolds, TOKYO

TOKYO (Reuters) - A top aide to Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama denied a report on Monday that the government had dropped an end-of-May deadline for resolving a row over a U.S. Marine base, though there was still no solution in sight.

Kyodo news agency had said, without citing sources, that the government had given up on Hatoyama's self-imposed deadline in the belief that it would be difficult to get the agreement of local people by then.

"The prime minister is saying he will resolve the issue by the end of May, that he will do his best for that," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told a news conference.

But he said it would be hard to complete a plan by then.

"It will be very tough to decide on all the technical issues and other details on what will happen," Hirano said. "But we need to set a clear direction for our thinking and on other issues, or otherwise we won't be able to say we've resolved this."

Hatoyama said before a meeting with cabinet ministers on the row that he would stick to the deadline, but left unclear what form the resolution would take.

Dissatisfaction with his handling of the dispute has been one of the triggers for evaporating voter support in the run-up to an upper house election expected in July.

The Democrats' chances of winning a majority in that election are receding, raising the possibility of policy deadlock as the country struggles to maintain a fragile economic recovery and control ballooning public debt.

Disillusioned by funding scandals in the ruling party and Hatoyama's perceived inability to take hard decisions, less than a fifth of Japanese plan to vote for the Democratic Party in the election, a newspaper poll showed on Monday.

"There is no way to raise support, so the Democrats are going into damage control mode," said Tsuneo Watanabe, senior fellow at thinktank the Tokyo Foundation.

That could include blaming Hatoyama personally so as to deflect criticism from the party, he said.

About a quarter of respondents to the Yomiuri poll said they supported Hatoyama and his cabinet, down on 33 percent in a poll last month and compared with 67 percent who said they did not.

FUZZY DEFINITION

About half respondents to the Yomiuri poll said Hatoyama should resign if he misses the deadline.

The chances of a deal had already seemed remote after residents of both the southern island of Okinawa and the tiny island of Tokunoshima about 150 km (90 miles) away reacted angrily to Hatoyama's suggestion that they share the burden of Futenma airbase.

That idea was a modification of a 2006 deal, still favored by the United States, which would move the Futenma base from a city center to a more remote part of Okinawa.

But Hatoyama raised hopes during last year's election campaign it could be moved off the island.

Members of Hatoyama's cabinet have blurred the definition of what he has promised and some analysts say the best that can be expected is for talks to continue with the aim of reaching a deal before President Barack Obama visits in November.

Japan and the United States are set to hold the second round of working-level talks on Futenma in Washington on Wednesday.

The row has hit the Democratic Party, whose support had already been weakened by a series of funding scandals involving party lawmakers.

The scandals hit the headlines again last month when a judicial review panel said Democratic Party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa, seen by many as the real power behind the government, should be charged over misreporting of his political funds. Ozawa has repeatedly said he will not step down.

(Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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JAPAN: Hatoyama gives up on settling Futenma issue by May 31

May 10 04:10 AM US/Eastern

(AP) - TOKYO, May 10 (Kyodo)

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has likely given up on settling the issue of the relocation of a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture by his self-imposed May 31 deadline amid fierce opposition from local residents to moving it within the prefecture, government sources said Monday.

Hatoyama held a meeting earlier in the day with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and other officials to try to form a final direction on the fate of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan.

Hatoyama has reneged on his promise to gain approval from both local residents and Washington by the end of this month and will instead focus on negotiations with the United States to make a breakthrough on the stalled issue that has soured bilateral relations since Hatoyama took office last September, the sources said.

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government is seeking to relocate most of the Futenma functions to a new pile-supported facility to be built off the coast of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, another Okinawa city -- a modification of an existing deal agreed to in 2006 by a Liberal Democratic Party government and the United States.

To ease the burden of hosting U.S. military bases on Okinawa, the government is also aiming to transfer some drills conducted at Futenma to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, about 200 kilometers northeast from Okinawa, although the mayors of the three towns on the island last week made it clear that they will not accept the plan when they met with the premier in Tokyo.

Okinawa, which hosts a majority of U.S. forces stationed in Japan, is also decisively against having any of the Futenma functions remain inside the prefecture, urging the prime minister to fulfill his promise made before last year's general election to move the facility outside Okinawa altogether.

Hatoyama denied again earlier in the day that he would extend his deadline despite some Cabinet members advising him to do so, in an apparent attempt to save him from feeling pressured to resign from the post of prime minister if he fails to come to a conclusion that can satisfy the public by the end of this month.

Speaking at a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano acknowledged that it would not be easy for the government to decide on the technical details of the relocation plan by the end of this month.

But he added that the government is trying to win over locals and come up with some sort of a "political solution" with a certain "direction" on where Futenma should be relocated.

The top government spokesman has not elaborated on what could constitute a "solution," securing an escape route for the government that has seen a plunge in support ratings because of the base relocation dispute.

Under the 2006 deal, Tokyo and the United States agreed to reclaim land from the sea off the coast of Camp Schwab in a less crowded area to relocate Futenma there with the aim of reducing the base-hosting burden on Okinawa and removing risks posed to local residents by the Marines' facility.

The governments are set to hold the second round of working-level talks on the issue in Washington on Wednesday.

Hatoyama apparently intends to make utmost efforts to win local agreement after formulating a certain direction with the United States, according to the sources.

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