070824JapanConsideredPodcastVolume03Number30

Click here for a transcript of this program. We begin this week with some discussion of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Indonesia, India, and Malaysia. He left on Sunday and is expected back in Tokyo tomorrow, Saturday. Then we turn to domestic politics, with consideration of developments in the appointment of the second Abe Cabinet. Some of those developments quite surprising. And finally we look at Prime Minister Abe's political style, in search of explanations of the problems he has faced since his selection last September. I suggest that he may simply be conflict-adverse. Or that he's relying on individuals for advice who are out of touch with the current political situation in Japan. Included in all this is consideration of the continued unusual situation in Japan's Ministry of Defense. With the outgoing administrative vice minister openly criticizing his minister. And Japan's communications media not saying much at all about it. Which calls into question their concern over political control of Japan's military!