In a study conducted six years ago, a team of Japanese researchers

asked children in Korea, Taiwan,
and Japan to draw a picture of a
typical evening meal. Although

most of the children depicted a family sitting together around a dinner ta- ble, a significant number of the Japanese children drew a single child holding a bowl of noodles while seated in front of the tele- vision set. These results reinforced a con- cern already voiced by influential commen- tators in Japan, including government of...