Yuko Yamashita pauses when asked to tell me her job title in the family business of three restaurants and a catering service that she runs with her husband, Yoshizumi. Her hands-on role involves everything from choosing and arranging the flowers to getting up at the crack of dawn to negotiate with fishmongers at Barcelona¡¯s wholesale fish market.

¡°We have plenty of staff in the restaurants, of course, but there are some details that I prefer to take care of,¡± she says, smiling.

Perfectly groomed with long black hair, Yamashita looks much younger than her 67 years. She puts her good health down to playing golf in a local competition set up by Casa Nippon, the Japanese association that she helped to set up in Barcelona, Spain.