This week's cover is a woodcut--TIME'S first in that medium. For Japanese Printmaker Kiyoshi Saito, however, it is not his first appearance in the magazine. His work should be familiar to many TIME readers; as long ago as 1951, we introduced the then-unknown Saito in the Art section and reproduced in color his now-famous woodcut, Cat.

He is still startled by the reaction to that story: "Suddenly my gallery was swamped with orders for Cat from around the world. In no time at all, the print disappeared from Japan." Saito limited the edition to 35 prints, and the work became a collector's item. One print was recently quoted by a Manhattan dealer at $1,500. Saito's original price was $16.60.

Today, the bold style and clean line of Japan's foremost woodcut artist can be seen in major museums the world over. Among his early collectors was an American naval officer named Jerry Schecter, who was based in Kobe in 1957 and returned to Japan in 1964 as TIME-LIFE bureau chief in Tokyo. Schecter filed the bulk of the reporting for this week's cover to Writer Robert Jones and Senior Editor Edward Jamieson. Schecter also led the search for a Japanese artist to portray Japan's Premier.

Saito was an almost inevitable choice, but he approached the task with some apprehension. "After all," he said, "up to then I had never done the likeness of a face except of Buddhist images and prehistoric haniwa figurines." In and one furious prehistoric sitting, the artist squatted on the floor and filled a large sketchbook with his drawings. Back at his studio, he transferred a composite of his sketches to five blocks-- one for each color --of a soft Japanese wood called sen, from which the cover portrait was made.

As for the cover story, Writer Jones was able to draw on his own expertise as well as that of Bureau Chief Schecter, Reporters Frank Iwama and Sungyung Chang, and Researcher Sara Collins. Jones put in three tours of duty with the Navy in Japanese waters in the '50s. "You feel you understand the Japanese," he says. "The people captivate you. The Japanese are complex, but they are quite scrutable."

FOR the past 15 years, John Scott, an assistant to TIME'S publisher, has been roaming the world and reporting on its major problems. His assignments have varied from the Common Market to the turmoil of Southeast Asia. After his trips, Scott, a former TIME foreign correspondent, lectures on his findings in four languages (English, Russian, French and German) to business and academic audiences around the world.

He also writes a book-length report on each tour, which we send to business executives, government officials, educators, labor leaders. This week we are distributing Scott's latest study, done after visits to Asia, South America and Europe. Its title: "Hunger--Must We Starve?" Scott's answer: Not necessarily, provided that man makes the most of modern methods of population control and improves food production. His next subject: Viet Nam.

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