Does Japan have the least impressive booth at Cannes?

Tongues are wagging across Japan's blogosphere about the reception party thrown at the Japan Booth at Cannes Film Festival's "Palais des Festivals" on Monday. The booth's ostensible goal is to allow Japanese film companies and filmmakers to network with their counterparts abroad, and the organizers threw a cocktail party to encourage representatives from foreign distributors to drop by. 

Normally, these sorts of events are designed to impress. But looking over photos from the soiree, we can't help noticing that the centerpiece of the party was apparently a little less than opulent. And in particular, the smattering of cheap snack foods straight off a convenience store shelf, including individually wrapped sembei crackers (helpfully liberated from a "family pack") and processed-cheese kamaboko fishcake in plastic sleeves. Not that there's anything wrong with that -- if you're drinking a six-pack with pals on a park bench.

By all accounts the get-together seems to have been a success -- when free sake is flowing, it's hard for a party to go wrong. Still, one has to question: were finances really so bad this year that they couldn't have sprung for something a wee bit flashier for one of the world's most luxurious film festivals?