Just when I thought that it was the DPJ that was off to a bad start in the new Diet session, the Abe Cabinet once again finds itself in hot water over the inability of a cabinet minister to control his mouth.As I noted earlier, Yanagisawa Hakuo, health minister, recently referred to women as "birth-giving …
Month: January 2007
The DPJ starts out on the wrong foot
As I alluded to earlier, in this post on Abe's speech at the opening of the new Diet session, the DPJ may find itself unable to attack the LDP for improprieties by LDP members in the raising of political funds due to the resignation of erstwhile DPJ member Tsunoda Giichi from his position as vice …
Japan says no (kind of)
Last week Japanese Defense Minister Kyuma Fumio criticized the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq as a "mistake."I held off from commenting right away, because I was curious to see what the US response would be, if any.Now, after Kyuma repeated his criticism this weekend, prompting the State Department to protest to the Japanese Embassy …
Abe inaugurates "The First Year for Creating a Beautiful Country"
Political Japan's long holiday is over, as the 166th session of the Japanese Diet opened Thursday, with Prime Minister Abe delivering his policy address Friday.His address, available in English here and in Japanese here, confirms much of what I have already written about Prime Minister Abe. He even quoted Fukuzawa Yukichi, leading intellectual during the …
Continue reading Abe inaugurates "The First Year for Creating a Beautiful Country"
Managing China’s rise
Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations has a solid op-ed (via RealClearPolitics) in The Washington Post that ably enumerates the numerous complications of China's rise, which accordingly calls for greater US leadership to ensure that as China becomes more powerful, its power is channeled in the direction of upholding international order and rules, …
Passing out leaflets on cold January morns
I've just arrived at the office after an hour and a half -- from 6:30am to 8am -- of distributing fliers outside a nearby train station. This was the third morning this week of standing outside a train station during the morning rush greeting commuters with "ohayou gozaimasu" and "Minshuto desu."I figured that three mornings …
Hysteria on China
This op-ed by James Pinkerton (via RealClearPolitics) is typical of the hysteria in many corners of the chattering classes that has greeted China's test of an ASAT missile, the kind of breezy certainty that China is definitely, one-hundred percent, no doubt about it the biggest threat America faces and we better do something about it …
Soy it ain’t so
And now for some serious news...In early January natto -- a uniquely Japanese soybean dish about which no Japanese is neutral -- was hailed on a Japanese variety show as being able to reduce a person's weight by two-three kilograms in two or three weeks if eaten twice a day. It turns out, however, that …
Correction
http://youtube.com/v/oFxZAlRfKTAYouTube's having failed to properly post the video attached to the previous post, here is the video to which I referred.
マスコミ民主党
The above video is a TV commercial for the Democratic Party of Japan in advance of the approaching Diet session and this summer's election (hat tip: Trans-Pacific Radio and Mutant Frog).I wish it weren't so. I'd like to think that this ad was actually made by an LDP operative seeking to discredit the DPJ; I …
Tobias S. Harris 