Japan’s foreign ministry has told its embassies abroad to reduce huge wine stockpiles after finding excessive build-ups, including almost 7,900 bottles at one European mission alone.
“I was very surprised to see the report by the audit board,” Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who took office a month ago, told a parliamentary committee after a recent audit of embassies’ booze stocks.
“I knew there was a considerable inventory of wine, but one mission had as much as 30 times (their 2009 annual consumption),” he said.
Photo: Reuters 照片:路透
“It would be fine if they kept their stocks, but some missions discarded 1,000 bottles. It’s a big waste.”
Maehara said the center-left government that swept to power last year had pushed efforts since then to reduce the stockpiles by transferring extra bottles between embassies and through sales to private entities.
“We have made reforms to bring the inventory to an appropriate level. We want to manage wine and other stocks so that we eliminate waste,” he said.
The ministry’s audit board pointed to the excessive inventory in a report earlier this month surveying 51 of Japan’s 211 diplomatic missions abroad.
It found Japan’s mission to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development had 7,896 wine bottles at the end of March 2010.
This means the inventory is enough for 30 years considering the mission consumed 268 bottles in the 2009 fiscal year to March.
Japan’s mission to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva had 1,436 bottles, the equivalent of nearly 12 years of its consumption.
The consulate-general in New York and three other missions reported discarding a total of 1,044 bottles of wine and other alcoholic beverages, citing their degraded quality.
(AFP)
日本外交部近日發現駐歐洲的某個日本大使館藏了將近七千九百瓶酒,因而通告海外使館減少囤積大量酒品。
甫上任一個月餘的外交部長前原誠司近日審查外館酒品儲存量後,告知國會委員會,「我看到審查委員會的報告時很驚訝。」
部長說,「我已知有相當份量的酒類存貨,但有個外館擁有的卻是一整年飲酒量(二零零九年年度消耗量)的三十倍。」
「如果可以保留的話就好,但有些外館卻丟棄多達一千瓶酒。實在很浪費。」
前原表示,去年初掌國家大權的中間偏左政府上台後,極力將各館多餘的酒撥給其它館,以減少各館的藏酒量,甚至也販賣給私人團體。
他說,「我們為了使酒品存量達到合理的水準而做了改革。我們想好好的管理酒類與儲存,以杜絕浪費。」
外交部審查委員會的報告將重點放在外館過量的酒類存貨。審查委員會這個月稍早公佈了這份審查二百一十一間外館中五十一間的報告。
委員會發現日本駐巴黎的經濟合作發展組織於二零一零年三月底有多達七千八百九十六瓶酒。
以二零零九年三月份為準的會計年度而言,這間外館喝了二百六十八瓶酒,這代表存貨量已足夠該館連續喝上三十年。
日本駐日內瓦負責裁軍會議工作的外館有一千四百三十六瓶酒,等同該館將近十二年所喝的酒。
據報導,日本駐紐約的總領事館,與其它三座外館丟棄了一千零四十四瓶酒,原因是酒的品質劣化。
(法新社/翻譯:吳岱璟)
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its
It’s no secret that Japanese people have a deep affection for noodles. Like in the rest of East Asia, noodles are an important staple food, second only to rice. Japanese people have enjoyed noodles for over 1,000 years. The first noodles came from China and were introduced around 800 CE. As time passed, noodles in Japan not only became widespread but also developed some unique Japanese characteristics. The three most popular types of noodles in Japan are ramen, soba, and udon. Ramen, typically made from wheat flour, is usually thin and firm. The dough is kneaded and left to
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once