Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Mainichi Scoop on ISIL Embezzler? Think Again

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Today (Feb. 17), the Mainichi website uploaded a remarkable report from its Cairo correspondent , citing a Syrian antigovernment activist ...
Monday, February 16, 2015

What If the New Minsk Agreement Takes?

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It can happen. It’s really up to Russia. The separatist rebels surely want more, and they are more likely than not to take Debaltseve. But ...
Friday, February 13, 2015

Here I Am Ranting at Yet Another “The Atlantic” Report, This Time on Superannuated Japanese Businesses

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I judge a publication by what they write about things that I know something about or have a feel for. If they get it right, I give it the b...
Thursday, February 12, 2015

Three Diplomats Walk into a Publisher’s Office…

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… Or perhaps the Japanese Consulate-General in New York delivered a MOFA demarche, in order to convince McGraw Hill to remove two paragraph...
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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

On ABC NewsRadio, Yes, around the ISIL Murders

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Here it is , “the first episode,” I’ve been told. I’ll have to trust that the producer did not edit it completely out of context, since...
Sunday, February 08, 2015

Is Mainichi Turning into the Daily Version of Its Weekly Magazine?

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Mainichi’s weekly magazine, once a staple of the waiting lobbies of banks, medical clinics, dentist’s offices and other reputable establis...

JA-Zenchu Reform Appears to be Proceeding on Abe Administration’s Terms

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Nikkei headlined its February 7 morning edition with “Nōkyō-kaikaku Ōosuji Kaiketsu e (Agricultural Cooperative Reform Largely on the Way...

First Rudd Goes…

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So Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is offed by Julia Gillard, Gillard is whacked in the backswing by Rudd, Rudd loses to Tony Abbott, now Abbott ...
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My Second Point, I Think, Was the Crisis around the ISIL Hostages

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Looking back, it appears that it was the crisis around the two Japanese taken as hostage by ISIL. What I was able to say within what I thou...

I (Think I) Got Three more Calls Right and One Call Wrong

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If my memory serves me correctly, I got or am getting three more calls right, and one wrong. First, I said that the TPP would move afte...
Friday, February 06, 2015

The Thumb

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For those of you who are too old or too young to remember, interviewing one’s thumb was what many a callow American correspondent in post-W...

No, Mr. Saletan Did Not Go Nuts. But Very Careless

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I interrupt my relatively post-free week to ridicule some nonsense. William Saletan at S late , who usually writes about technology, ha...
Thursday, February 05, 2015

Exchange Rate Forecasts: Could Your Guess Be As Good As Nihon Soken’s?

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Having too much time on my hands this morning, I had the choice of ripping into yet another Noah Smith Japan op-ed (not that I currently h...
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Friday, January 30, 2015

Pox on Both Translations! The Cairo Speech by Prime Minister Abe

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I’ve been doing my best to avoid going public on the hostage issue this week, but I did talk about this yesterday to a former government of...