GlobalTalk 21

I’d been telling everyone who would listen that Noda would take Japan into the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) FTA negotiations if only beca...

…It’s about time, so why not reboot here… You know that anyone who's looking for proof of Japanese media bias need only look at the Yomi...

The following is my email response to an inquiry from a friend in the academia, verbatim but with personal details edited out. [F]: Foreign ...

I’ve been getting a few inquiries on the government’s (so far) successful decision to essentially force TEPCO’s private-sector stakeholders—...

Another stateside friend New York tossed this NYT report my way. The following is my response, lightly edited here with a sentence tacked ...

A friend of mine wrote in to tell me that according to a media report, plans are afoot for a 50/50 split between TEPCO and the government fo...

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has quietly but firmly made it clear that the Japanese government is jointly and severally liable (he ap...

Some headlines from the online Yomiuiri: 23 April: “Diet Members Aligned with Ozawa to Step Up Efforts to ‘Depose Kan’ When New Week Begins ...

Kaoto Kan, currently Japan’s prime minister, is not exactly my favorite politician, but surely he deserves some credit for what he is trying...

Here’s my snap reaction to Prime Minister Kan’s 7:30PM speech to mark the passing of two weeks since the earthquake and tsunami. Speech: Som...

From my outbox, lightly edited, plus some supplemental, inappropriate material… I’ve been telling people that not all the heroes at Fukushim...

Mike Smitka mentioned in passing that he had blogs so I went to take a look. This post must be about as good a summary of the scale of the ...

TEPCO has been catching most of the flak for allegedly mishandling the response to the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant...

A Vice President of TEPCO—Japanese corporate vice presidents are more important than the typical American VP—said that the blackouts could b...

(Regular blogging to resume. But not now, sorry.) TV programming has returned to normal. Cable never wavered from their regular fare—no choi...

But I do see Europe. Yesterday, Paul Sracic emailed me his quick response to President Obama’ State of Union address, which included the fol...

Prime Minister Kan is trying to take the DPJ back to its reformist roots. His two most important policy initiatives: 1) putting the social s...

Opinion polls show the Kan cabinet dropping to near-last gasp Hatoyama lows and the DPJ falling behind the LDP for the first time in what se...

Sorry I haven’t responded to comments on the Senkaku issue, but is this (highly unsuccessful) ramming of a South Korean Coast Guard vessel b...

More bad news for the Kan administration, according to the evening edition of the hardcopy Yomiuri . My translation, plus comments. Katsuyuk...