GlobalTalk 21

Recent local elections have tended to reinforce the dominant message from the public opinion polls: the Japanese electorate doesn’t like the...

As part of a new wrinkle for this blog, I am answering some questions from Mark about LDP factions, the DPJ, and political leaders. Now, I’...

I try not to shoot fish in a barrel; it’s too cruel. On the other hand, I’m too busy/bored to…oh, what the hell… One-third of LDP Diet membe...

I just can’t seem to get back to regular blogging, but I’ve responded to a couple of comments, here on Japan, its Northeast Asia neighbors ...

Back to blogging after a hard week’s work. First, some long past due responses to comments on this post .

Actually, just a few new comments from “William” and yours truly on this week-old post . I think that you will enjoy them—if you have any in...

The following is my response to a comment from Matt Dioguardi, with whom I had other enjoyable disagreements in the past, on this post . The...

No, it’s not a Jumanji sequel, it’s short for Komazawa Joshi Dai(gaku), a women’s college. It’s a relatively new thing, certainly post-WW I...

If I were advising your firm, I would call for a dual-identity system that superficially resembles the TIME blogs. You firm should establis...

In the first decades of the 1955 System, voter turnout hovered in the low 70s to the high 60s. It gradually declined, falling to the low 60s...

I shared a most informative afternoon with a foreign correspondent today. I was supposed to sing for my lunch and I did, but I got as good a...

Most of the stuff I’ve been working on this weekend has been work-related material so I can post them here. Instead, let me note that Tinter...

Intergovernmental forums lacking legislative, executive, or judicial functions show a distressing tendency to devolve into talk fests that p...

There’s really not much to write about Japanese politics these days. The Hatoyama caper (I’ve written a brief explanation at the bottom of t...

A rare success story for the beleaguered Aso administration has been its response to the Novel Influenza (A/H1N1). When the news of the viru...

The fallout from the British scandal over improper expenses claimed by MPs* provides lessons in how not to manage risk. The cash value of im...

This post is dedicated to the day I spent with my then high-school classmate on Ponpon-yama, where the katakuri lilies were in full bloom, ...

A look at two last-minute reversals of fortune that saved LDP administrations from devastating election losses gives us some idea of what Pr...

I rest my case . The real question of course is: What does the U.K. have against potatoes? Tortillas (corn) VAT-free, Kappa Ebisen (wheat)...

Sixty or so members out of the ninety-five on the losing side of the DPJ leadership election, including Katsuya Okada himself, held a party ...