Japanese Women

TOKYO -- "Wow, you have fat legs. Well, I guess you can't do anything about it," one female job-seeker was told. Another was asked, "Are you a virgin?"In America, such comments would land the personnel manager and his company in court. In Japan, it's a different story, particularly this year as women suffer through the worst hiring season in memory.A survey of 112 students provided many examples of what female job-hunters have been experiencing.For many, jobs disappear as soon as inquiries are made, information is withheld, and interviews are denied, canceled or made unbearable.

TOKYO -- In the days of equal opportunities for men and women, the next Sherlock Holmes may be a female.According to a newly opened school in Tokyo that trains detectives and researchers, women account for about 70 percent of the 300 students taking beginner courses.Some of them said they want to acquire skills to look into their husbands' cheating.Tokyo Intelligence & Research College, which opened last month, offers six-month, twice-a-week introductory courses for 300,000 yen ($2,500) each.

TOKYO -- On a street of stolidly upper-middle-class apartments, a shop window is filled with familiar Tokyo icons: Revlon lipsticks, Shiseido skin creams, Christian Dior scarves and Issey Miyake belts.Inside, the ceiling is painted with angels and cherubs. French impressionist prints line the walls. A "relaxation room" at the rear is lined with gilt-edged mirrors, makeup lights and hair driers. A massage chair gives off the sound of birds chirping and the fragrance of lilacs.Is this any way to run a pinball joint?

The restaurant at the Main Press Center appeared crowded, with a number of Olympic workers gathered near the entrance, chatting excitedly.Was there a wait, two U.S. reporters asked?Two young Japanese women smiled and pointed to a corner table."Musashimaru," they said, almost giggling.There he was, all right, all 440 pounds of him. The Hawaiian-born sumo wrestler was preparing for his afternoon feeding. One by one, the young women approached, taking pictures, getting autographs, giggling.What a life.

Three Japanese women sat at the Big Hat Arena, wearing Pittsburgh Penguins jerseys, waving Czech Republic flags.It's a small world, after all.One of the women held her "I Love Jaromir" sign the entire game. Another fan waved a sign that said, "Happy Birthday Jagr," in tribute to his 26th.The Japanese love their hockey, all right. They sign and clap to the "Faceoff" song played before each period. And they display stunning knowledge of the NHL players.Why are the Czechs so popular?"Their hockey style is beautiful to watch," said Ta-Keshi Fujino, who wore a white Czech jersey and a white helmet with a Czech flag on top.But the Japanese don't just adore the Czechs.

Boston. -- It is a story that might have sprung full- blown from the deep well of conspiracy fantasies. All the princes of darkness were there at the beginning of the Saga of Silicone. Racism. Sexism. Imperialism. Even the Military-Industrial Complex.Silicone made its entry into the female body almost 50 years ago, because Japanese women were trying to attract American soldiers. The conquerors liked bigger breasts and so industrial strength transformer coolant was injected directly into these women.

CENTRAL VALLEY, N.Y. - Machiko Takenaka, 25, a self-described "office lady" from Tokyo, was on a whirlwind tour of New York City. The day before, she had seen "Cats." She was bound for a Mets game in the afternoon. But on this lovely morning, she had carved out time for that supreme Japanese-tourist pastime: shopping. Gucci, Max Mara and Anne Klein were just a few of the stores on her itinerary.Rather than hit Madison Avenue, however, she had boarded a bus at the Port Authority terminal, rolling north through the reed-cloaked marshlands of New Jersey, past car dealerships and tanning salons and into the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.

Is it true that eating soybean products can prevent cancer?Various plants contain a number of different phytoestrogens, substances that behave like a weak form of the human female sex hormone, estrogen. One class of phytoestrogens, called isoflavones, is present in especially large amounts in soybeans, which as a result appear to have greater estrogen-like activity than other plant foods.Some scientists have proposed that eating soy foods can protect against both breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.They hypothesize that during the premenopausal years the phytoestrogens can prevent the cancer-promoting effects of estrogens on breast tissue cells.

Marilyn Glenville, one of the United Kingdom's leading nutritional therapists and author of Natural Alternatives to HRT Cookbook: Understanding Estrogen and Foods That Benefit Your Health (Ten Speed Press, $17.95), specializes in the natural approach to female hormone problems. Glenville researched the diets of healthy women worldwide. For instance, studies have shown Japanese women have later and less stressful menopauses and a lower rate of breast cancer. "Therefore the question arises as to what most differentiates these women from us in the Western world," says Glenville.

In the second half of her career, pianist Mitsuko Uchida says she expects to do exactly what she did in its first half."Which is to say that I'll be doing different things all the time," says Uchida, 48, as she collapses into one of her trademark torrential giggling bouts, puncturing the staid atmosphere in the posh Harborcourt Hotel's Brighton tearoom.This may seem a paradox to her Baltimore fans.When Uchida last visited here, she performed a Mozart concerto with David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony.