Hatoyama’s Resignation and My 176 Seconds of Fame

Here, in related videos, I’m talking just after the news broke on NHK that Hatoyama had announced his intent to step down. They posted the second half only (and only an excerpt at that), which is a good thing actually; I was in the usual storytelling mode in the first half so I got cut off in mid-paragraph every time that I tried to answer a question. I went off for a few minutes while they delivered more news, during which the producer told me to try to make to brief. It worked, as I hope the clip shows. “Don’t bury the lead”—it’s even truer in the electronic media.

At the time, the media did not know that Ozawa was also going to step down, and I thought that I responded adequately to a follow-up question on that point in the second half. Note that they’ve edited this out and otherwise clipped the interview (the question to my first point doesn’t appear in the clip) so that the excerpt will lose its freshness as slowly as possible.

I learned many things in just that one experience. Like I’ve really, really aged. I also think that I enjoyed myself too much. That gave me a little insight on what got into the heads of those liberal wusses who show up on the O’Reilly Show for their 15 minutes of ignominy.

Back to work.

Do Any of You Watch Bloomberg TV?

If you do, why not tune in tomorrow (2 June) around 9:30-9:40AM Tokyo Time (that’s June 1, 8:30-8:40PM DST, in New York, I think)? You’ll be in for a surprise.

Just sayin’, you know.

Do I Really Look Like This, European Chamber of Commerce?

Seriously, now I know how Dorian Gray felt when he looked at his own portrait.

The actual interview took place on 17 March according to my Google calendar and was edited by the following week, and the Hatozawa regime’s slide continues. However, I see no reason to have to substantially alter my outlook.