Hormones & Eels

More select than Japan's peerage is her caneage--those who are privileged to carry a cane in the presence of Divine Emperor Hirohito. Last week Tokyo had titillating intimations from the Imperial Household Ministry that Octogenarians Finance Minister Korekiyo Takahashi and Baron Tatsuo Yamamoto will this month be raised to the caneage.

Despite the august quality thus conferred upon these elders, Osaka's chatty Mainichi could not resist chattering that neither Mr. Takahashi, an old fox, now Finance Minister for the seventh time, nor Baron Yamamoto, an astute banker and Mitsubishi executive, has any real need of a cane. Chirped Mainichi: "Baron Yamamoto weighs 155 Ib. and has rosy cheeks. His hobbies are net fishing and archery, and he attributes his health to these.

"Finance Minister Takahashi weighs about 138 lb., and though he impaired his health last year he is now sound and very energetic. He has had about 50 injections of hormones since last year, and he has a great liking for broiled eels. Though he was formerly very fond of sake, he is now a total abstainer."

-Not to be confused with the late, great Admiral Count Gombei Yamamoto, Japan's "Earthquake Premier" who died, aged 81, in 1933-

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