080404JapanConsideredPodcastVol04No12

Click here for a transcript of this week's program. Thanks for tuning in again this week. Coming to you from the Mobile Studio at Modoc, South Carolina. On the very shore of Lake Thurmond. This week we examine the surprising increase in the number of mainstream Japanese political media articles related to reorganization of Japan's political party system. Just in the past few days. And sort through the implications of the most likely explanation. That, it seems, is the continuing tumble of the public approval rating for Prime Minister Fukuda and his cabinet. Next week I hope to sort through the various non-faction, even non-party, associations that have blossomed in Japan's political world during the brief period Prime Minister Fukuda has occupied the Kantei. And consider their significance for selection of Fukuda's successor, the next general election, and the reorganization of Japan's political party system.