How many victims does it take to make a syndrome? According to a French newspaper, a dozen a year will do. In the case of a trend it has dubbed "Paris syndrome," that would be the 12 or so Japanese tourists a year who are said to be so disenchanted by their encounter with the fabled French capital that they end up needing psychiatric treatment.

"Fragile travelers can lose their bearings," a Paris psychologist told the newspaper, Journal du Dimanche, "When the idea they have of a country meets the reality of what they discover, it can provoke a crisis."

Now, we appreciate a new syndrome as much as the next person, but obviously more has been lost in translation here than the experiences of a few disoriented visitors from the Orient. Why, for instance, did the authors of the original study, which was published in a French medical journal in 2004, single out Japanese as particularly likely to find Paris a letdown? Not just your everyday disappointment, either, but a jolt big enough to send some of them over the edge.