In the midst of reading my students' essays today, I was continually distracted by interesting links that arrived in my inbox. First, on the question of a Japanese nuclear arsenal, Brad Glosserman, executive director of Pacific Forum, the Honolulu-based Asia-Pacific research arm of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote a brief article (article …
Month: October 2006
Morning Reading
In The New York Times, Thom Shanker analyzes Condi Rice's whirlwind tour. The main point: "As Ms. Rice enters the autumn months of the Bush administration’s tenure in office, she dropped early administration mantras — like other nations are “either with us or against us” — on this trip, and instead repeated at each whistle-stop, …
Rainy day, shoes, Leo Strauss, Japanese baseball
Another rainy day in Gamagori: the clouds moved in early and settled over the mountains to the north, and shrouded the bay with an impenetrable mist. There seems to be little doubt that autumn has arrived here for good.I spent much of today reading students' essays. My newest assignment is to give them prompts for …
Continue reading Rainy day, shoes, Leo Strauss, Japanese baseball
Sport as a social lubricant; the Japanese security debate; readings; and my father, the "trading god"?
I would like to take a brief time out from observing Japan to provide a link to a profile of my father in the current issue of Fortune Magazine, in which he relates his insight on markets and trading. For the most part it is a brief snapshot of the in-depth interview he did with …
Playing the nuclear card?
Charles Krauthammer has a strongly worded op-ed in Friday's Washington Post wondering why the US is working to "quell any thought Japan might have of going nuclear to counter and deter North Korea's bomb."Krauthammer's piece is typical of the hysteria that has greeted the North Korean nuclear test from all corners. Accordingly, Krauthammer naturally sees …
Hooray for Japanese bureaucracy!
Today was a pretty, pretty, pretty good day, although I suppose any day that doesn't involve lugging heavy suitcases across Japan is a pretty good day.But seriously, today was a good way in a lot of ways. I managed to apply for my Alien Registration Card and the National Health Insurance system in the same …
By the shore
おはようござむす！Good morning, all.I have moved into Kaiyou Gakuen, in Mikaotsuka. Now I am living on a dormitory floor with 20 12-13 year old Japanese boys, at a school with 120 such boys. The school only opened just this past April, so for the moment the facilities dwarf the school's population. There are entire buildings empty …
Leaving Tokyo
My first day of work was yesterday. I met with Mr. Asao and his staff, and received details about my itinerary for the coming weeks and my living arrangements. It seems that I will be living in Kamakura, in Kanagawa Prefecture. Before I move in, however, I will be working at 海洋学園, an elite boarding …
North Korea, etc.
Aaron Friedberg, recently returned to Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School after serving as Dick Cheney's deputy assistant for national security affairs, had an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post that soberly assesses the difficult task in dealing with the Kim Family Regime's (KFR) nuclear arsenal.Friedberg argues that because Kim Jong Il cares only for his survival, the …
日本へ戻っている
I am writing at 5am, Tokyo time, which means that I have returned to Japan (i.e, jet lag).I am here to work as an aide to Keiichiro Asao, a member of the upper house of the Japanese Diet and 次の外務大臣 (literally 'next foreign minister', meaning the shadow foreign minister) for the opposition Democratic Party of …
Tobias S. Harris 