Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 13, 1992                   TAG: 9203130174
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By YURI KAGEYAMA
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Medium

JAPAN BASHING BECOMES A FUN THING - IN JAPAN

In a new computer game, players can choose one of 400 ways to slam Japan as they try to influence troubled U.S.-Japan relations.

The game, no surprise, is called Japan Bashing and is scheduled to hit stores in Japan on March 27. Significantly, there are no plans for an English version or U.S. sales.

The game's maker, SystemSoft Corp., says it is meant to get Japanese thinking about U.S.-Japan relations, not inflame hostility between the longtime allies.

Still, thanks to real-life U.S.-Japan frictions, the software company hopes the $66 game is a hit.

"No one predicted there was going to be such a rise in Japan bashing," said Seika Kinoshita, a spokesman for SystemSoft. "We are expecting favorable sales," as many as 50,000 this year.

The game is played on a screen with images of fictional leaders of the United States and Japan. The player is always the American, pitting himself against the computer, which plays the part of the Tokyo government.

As the game begins, the player chooses a degree and type of "bashing" from a selection on the screen, such as: "The Japanese government should stop driving whales into extinction," "Japanese should make wheat their staple food" or "People who can't speak English are barbarians."

The more one bashes, the more the computer yields on trade demands, responding in the roundabout language typical of Japanese politicians: "We should concede on this issue in order not to leave tensions between the two nations."

At the same time, however, anti-American sentiment rises, jeopardizing overall relations.

For advanced players, the range of possible outcomes include a complete Japanese buyout of America and even war.

To show the player how well he is doing, a computer graphic shows a cowboy firing bullets at a samurai who flicks them away with his sword, indicating Japan is not giving in to U.S. demands.

If Japan concedes, the samurai gives up and falls over dead or, in the most extreme case, commits hara-kiri.

Meanwhile, tiny hamburgers dotting the North American continent slowly turn into sushi on the computer screen as Japan advances into the United States. Winged dollars flap out of the United States, while cars and computer chips roll in.

The better a player bashes Japan, the less sushi appears on the screen.

Each game lasts two hours, representing a chronology from January 1980 to January 1992. The screen flashes headlines from actual news events.

And it's clear when the game is over: The screen depicts President Bush's visit to Japan earlier this year, culminating in his collapse from the flu at a state dinner.