The Japan Considered Podcast

Friday, December 30, 2005, Vol 01, No 07

Best wishes to you and

yours for a Happy and Productive New Year. This is the last podcast in

the Japan Considered series for this year. Thanks for listening. Check

in at www.JapanConsidered.ORG

for well annotated links to additional English language information on

political and diplomatic Japan. Click the "Interviews" link in the

navigation bar to go to a steadily increasing number of interviews with

noted Japan specialists. Two more informative interviews are coming in

the near future, for a total of 12 this year.

This week most of

Japan is on vacation. But a lot still was going on. We consider the

nature of news coverage and public relations during slow-news periods

in Japan, the publication of census data that showed an

earlier-than-expected beginning of the decline of Japan's population,

and government efforts to demonstrate that they are trying to take

counter-measures, report of the suicide last year of an official of

Japan's Consulate in Shanghai who left notes suggesting he was being

blackmailed by a Chinese intelligence official, and a tour of the

website maintained by the Office of Japan's Prime Minister. We close

the show with a few more bars of The Dirty River Band's "Crooked

Smile," progressive bluegrass that's bound to brighten your day.

Links to individuals and organizations mentioned in today's show follow:

The Japan Considered Project

The Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo

Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare

National Institute of Population and Social Security Research

Minister Kuniko Inoguchi

Kantei Meeting of the Council for Gender Equality

Discussion of Japan's Press Clubs from Japan Media Review

People's Republic of China Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Kantei Website Main Page

The Dirty River Band of Washington, D.C.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Volume 01, No 06 of the Japan Considered Podcast.

Prepared

a day early this week due to power outages planned for Gambrell Hall,

here at the University of South Carolina, home of the Japan Considered

Project. Point your browser at www.JapanConsidered.ORG for more details about the program and the other information resources of the Japan Considered website. Write me at [email protected] with your comments and suggestions.

Today

we consider press reaction to the annual convention of the Democratic

Party of Japan, and the performance of the DPJ's chairman, Seiji

Maehara, looking for hints about what electoral politics in Japan will

be for the next few years.

Then we consider the Ministry of

Finance's draft of next year's budget, which came in just below 80

trillion yen, down from last year. Budget cuts, however, are not

without specific victims, and we focus on medical expenditures and

Japan's overseas development aid.

The leading academic expert on

Japan's ODA, Professor Dennis Yasutomo of Smith College, Massachusetts,

joins us this week for a brief commentary that provides background and

sophisticated commentary on their political implications.

Links to individuals and organizations mentioned on today's program:

University of South Carolina
Democratic Party of Japan
The Japan Medical Association
Rengo, The Japanese Trade Union Confederation
Ministry of Finance Budget Page
Japan Considered Interview with Professor Dennis Yasutomo
The Dirty River Band of Washington D.C.

effect on the Democratic Party of Japan of Party Leader Seiji Maehara's

statements on Constitutional revision and China's military.

A tour of Professor Len Schoppa's "Japan Politics Central" website at the University of Virginia.

The Mizuho Securities Company stock sale error and subsequent economic crisis.

A few bars of Washington D.C. Dirty River Band's "Sweet Georgia Brown."


Here are a few links to institutions and individuals mentioned in today's program.

Drop me an e-mail at [email protected]. I look forward to your comments and suggestions. And in the meantime, visit www.JapanConsidered.ORG.

December 9, 2005. Volume 01, Number 04

Welcome to the fourth program in the Japan Considered Podcast series.
Go to the Japan Considered Project website for more English language information on Japanese politics and diplomacy.

Today, we consider the following topics:

Significance

of the Continuing condominium earthquake-resistance date falsification

for Japan's national and local bureaucracies.

Creation of a

Prime Ministerial advisory body charged with review of the yen-based

loan element of Japan's overseas development assistance.

Democratic

Party of Japan President, Seiji Maehara's efforts to develop his Party

into a more effective alternative to the LDP with a visit to

Washington, D.C.

Continued Yasukuni Shrine-related public

relations friction with China during preparations for the APEC+3

meetings in Kuala Lumpur.

And dampened expectations for the success of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa space mission.

Links to organizations and individuals mentioned in today's Podcast:

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Democratic Party of Japan

Liberal Democratic Party

Seiji Maehara Visits CSIS in Washington, D.C.

Text of Foreign Minister Taro Aso's December 7, 2005 Speech

APEC Home page

The Wind Riders Home Page

Sunday, December 04, 2005

This is the third program in the Japan Considered Podcast series. Today we discuss the following topics:

A proposal to change the Imperial House Law to allow female succession to the throne;

The political implications of the construction inspection scandal and discovery of earthquake-prone condominiums and hotels;

The

arrest of Democratic Party of Japan Lower House Member, Shingo

Nishimura, on suspicion of profiting from irregularities at his law

firm;

The landing of the Hayabusa space exploration craft on the asteroid Itokawa and collection of soil samples to bring back home;

And we close with music from North Carolina's progressive bluegrass band, The Wind Riders.

Links related to the program:

The Imperial Household Agency

Prime Minister Koizumi Receives Yoshikawa Report

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport

The Democratic Party of Japan

Shingo Nishimura's Web Page [in Japanese]

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

North Carolina's Progressive Bluegrass Band, "The Wind Riders"

Friday, November 25, 2005. Volume 01, Number 02

The second weekly podcast of the Japan

Considered Project at the University of South Carolina. In this program

we discuss the following topics:

1. The significance of the Liberal Democratic Party's 50th anniversary Party;
2. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Summit diplomacy performance.

Here are a few links to websites mentioned during the program, or related to topics discussed:

Liberal Democratic Party
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Office of the Prime Minister
White House
Text of President Bush's Kyoto Speech
Vladimir Putin's web page
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation web page
Yasukuni Shrine

The Dirty River Band of Washington, D.C.

November 18, 2005. Volume 01, Number 01

Welcome to the Japan Considered Podcast from the Japan Considered Project at the University of South Carolina, www.JapanConsidered.ORG.

This is the first program in a weekly consideration of Japan's domestic

politics and international relations. Please subscribe and join me,

Robert Angel, each week as we try to understand Japan's rapidly

changing political scene and international relations. Send your

comments to me at [email protected].