GlobalTalk 21

I have been “mistaken,” “misled,” “misrepresented,” and been “unaccountably in error,”
and am sorry if you have been offended

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

It's Now Unofficial, Shiro Asano Is Running for Governor of Tokyo

Shiro Asano has unofficially announced his candidacy in the Tokyo gubernatorial race . His message to the DPJ? If they put up a candidate, h...

Sunday, February 25, 2007

DPJ Forges Ahead in the Tokyo Gubernatorial Cooties Race

070225 The Democratic Party of Japan has suspended its desperate search for a candidate to challenge two-term Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiha...

Friday, February 23, 2007

I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry…

Please accept my apology , you, Whom I surely wronged Yesterday, On February 22.

'Tis the Season to Be Sorry

In quick succession: Feb. 22: At LDP headquarters, Secretary-General Hidenao "Big" Nakagawa apologizes to Prime Minister Shinzo Ab...

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Update Pot Pourri: Tokyo Gubernatorial; Dick Cheney Was Here; Mr. Ozawa Comes Clean, Sort of

I'd criticized the DPJ for failing to put up a challenge against Shintaro Ishihara, the Tokyo governor . Now it is the LDP's turn to...

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

If You Go to Wikipedia Now, Today's Featured Article Is Avatar: The Last Airbender

In case it's gone by the time you go there, this is the link to the Avatar entry. The series is about preteens and teenagers growing u...

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

If the Meal Money for His Daughter Is the Only Thing Plaguing Mr. Omi, Then There's a Long Line of Politicians Who'd Love to Take His Place

This is a reproduction of the substance of a comment I posted here , which I learned of by way of this . (I originally tracked the Mutant Fr...

Big Nakagawa Says, I'm His Daddy; Deeply Embarrasses the Prime Minister

Nakagawa, LDP Secretary-General: "Absolute Loyalty to the Premier from Cabinet Members and Bureaucrats " "[Hidenao] Nakagawa,...

Sunday, February 18, 2007

The Big Fat Side-of-a-Barn-Target Imperial Household Seems to Be Vindicated This Time Around

An investigative reporter wades into an issue about which he is singularly unequipped to tackle. The language and the culture are totally al...

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Kenichi Mizuno, LDP Rebel of Many and Varied Causes, Fights the Law (and METI); Comes Out Even

" The Japanese Government Appeals Verdict in the Energy Consumption Data Disclosure Law Suit On Feb. 13, the Japanese Government filed ...

Giving Up the Fight in Tokyo Bodes Ill for DPJ in July

Shiro Asano, the popular 59-year-old ex-Miyagi governor, has definitively declined to run for Tokyo governor as the DPJ candidate. Naoto Kan...

Friday, February 16, 2007

Hey, You, Yeah, You, over there. Honmura-an Closes Tomorrow You Know

Read it here . I definitely did not appreciate it when they switched to a for-the-locals, short-noodle format, but it was an institution.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Japan-China Pas de Deux (Don't Worry about Us, BBC)

My BBC obsession continues. Rumors are that Prime Minister Abe will ask for a Hu Jintao visit. Foreign Minister Li will say, not this year, ...

They're Putting the Wrong Primates in the Cages at the LA Zoo

BBC again . To quote: "Los Angeles Zoo has hired the services of a Feng Shui expert to help three golden monkeys loaned by China feel a...

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

If You Are a Japanese Work Machine, It Still Pays to Be a Guy. And Old.

The economy pages of the Feb. 14 Yomiuri lists 10 major companies that have announced upcoming changes in their boards of directors includi...

David Sanger, Confidante of the Washington High and Mighty, Is Sure the Deal Includes Nuclear Weapons

To quote: "Over the next year, under the pact, the North must not only disable its nuclear reactors and reprocessing facilities, it mus...

"Iraq Unveils New Security Plans", Says BBC, and Reveals Correspondents Talk to Each Other

Iraq says it will close its border crossings with Iran and Syria for three days as part of its new security plan for the capital, Baghdad. …...

I Am Angry at Blogspot

A few days ago, they finally forced me to move to the new format (by refusing to let me blog on in the old one). Not only that, they changed...

The Silence around the New Six Party Deal Says the NTP Regime Now Dwells among the Living Dead

Here's the full text of the Initial Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement . This is the link to the 2005 Sept. 19 Join...

Uh Oh, North Korea Is at It Again.

According to the Yomiuri website, Korean Central News Agency, the DPRK wire service, claims that "the countries decided to provide eco...

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About Me

Jun Okumura: After graduation, Jun Okumura promptly entered what is now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and stayed in in its ecosystem most of his “adult” life. Along the way, he had pleasant stops in an assortment of Japanese quangos (Japangos?), overseas assignments and government agencies. After thirty years, though, it dawned on him that he had no aptitude whatsoever for administration and/or management. Armed with this epiphany, he went to the authorities and arranged an amicable separation; to come out, as it were. He is completely on his own IYKWIAS, but he and the METI folks remain “good friends.” He currently holds the titles of “visiting researcher” at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs (no, that MIGA) and counselor at a risk analysis firm that dares not speak its name. This gives him plenty of time to blog or make money on his own. His bank account says that he does too much of the first, and insists that he do more of what he calls “intellectual odd jobs”. He wants to be paid to write fulltime, or better, talk—where the easy money is—but that distinction has largely escaped him. He really should not be referring to himself in the third person; he is not that famous.

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