Rotten

FOR Japan's food companies, crisis management has sometimes been spectacular. When, almost half a century ago, some 1,900 school children fell ill after drinking Snow Brand's powdered milk, a dismissive company executive confidently downed a glass of the drink in front of the press to allay fears of contamination. A few hours later, as expected, he was rushed to a bathroom. These days, however, crisis management is more likely to involve a series of evasions. At one point during Snow Brand's latest poisoning scare, last month, its befuddled boss fled a press conference shouting, “I haven't slept at all in the past week.”