Miyuki Hatoyama, Japan’s First Lady, has been awarded the Nobel Kimchi Prize “for her extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
“Some people say — and I understand it — ‘Isn’t it premature? Too early?’ Well, I’d say then that it could be too late to eat this year’s kimchi three years from now,” Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said. “It is now that we have the opportunity to respond — all of us — to the challenges and opportunities presented by kimchi.”
Hatoyama said she was “surprised and deeply humbled” by the honor, and planned to travel to Oslo in December to accept the prize.
“Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments with tsukemono, but rather as an affirmation of Japanese leadership on behalf of the kimchi aspirations held by people in all nations,” she said at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence. “To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize.”
Hatoyama will donate the $1.4 million cash award that comes with the prize to charities for former internet memes, Crasher Squirrel and Pancake Rabbit.
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In other news, Sazae-san, beloved manga/anime character, shocked Japan’s entertainment media by announcing she would appear in a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine.
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I like to hear about unusual people who speak their minds.
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