070810JapanConsideredPodcastVolume03Number28

August 10, 2007, Volume 03, Number 28Click here for a transcript of this program.Back home at last from a 24-day Grand Northern Sojourn. This program coming to you from the home studio. Hopefully with a little better sound quality. Thanks for tuning in. This week we begin by considering a couple of important international developments. The first, how the North Korean government's abduction and imprisonment of Japanese citizens has become a political football in Japan's domestic politics. Then evidence of a subtle change in the tone of Japan's relationship with Mainland China. The remainder of our program this week is devoted to continuation of the July 29th election postmortem. This time focusing on the response of the Abe Kantei to the shocking defeat. And we close with a clip of Tony Rice's "Changes" that I hope you enjoy.