tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post116852169531391643..comments2023-10-09T00:45:55.603+09:00Comments on Shisaku: His Dark MaterialsMTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04626942240117432624noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post-1168582314480652462007-01-12T15:11:00.000+09:002007-01-12T15:11:00.000+09:00Mr. Okumura - You are right, of course. Nominally...Mr. Okumura - <BR/><BR/>You are right, of course. Nominally, Matsumoto's figures are still pretty high--but my understanding of the story his people are pushing is that the claimed cost includes the rent for the cancelled Himeiji location.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, as you point out, the amounts being subsumed without a paper trail add up to a heck of a lot of late night bento specials, as well a considerable mound of such unimpeachable office necessities as A4 paper, erasers, highlighters and clear plastic folders.MTChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04626942240117432624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post-1168581392467050812007-01-12T14:56:00.000+09:002007-01-12T14:56:00.000+09:00MTC: You could just as easily say, 18.66 million y...MTC: You could just as easily say, 18.66 million yen for just one year, which is more than Mssrs. Endo or Eto when you extrapolate it to five years. But then you could make the counterargument that Mr. Matsumoto's numbers must have gone up because of moving costs.<BR/><BR/>My guess is, the DPJ is poorly represented because<BR/>1) there are fewer DPJ Diet members; and<BR/>2) DPJ has less money, collectively and individually.<BR/>Remember, it's <I>"Two LDPs to E-ve-ry D-P-J *da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da*"</I>, and big business gives most of its money to the LDP. In any case, it's easy to prove me wrong and that there really is an unexplainable bias by going to: http://www.seijishikin.soumu.go.jp/S0200.asp ... ... huh, what the... Hey, the data base is under maintenance, so the individual records can't be accessed. Somebody's been reading this blog...<BR/><BR/>Or not. Actually, purported conspiracies and shark attack outbreaks often do wind up having boring explanations if you go look up the records, such as there are.<BR/><BR/>What we should be getting from the media are exchanges like:<BR/><BR/><I>MTC: Mr. Ibuki, let's say you had to buy 1,000 box lunches and midnight </I>katsudon<I> for 100 people, that would be 100,000 yen. That's lot of people, a lot of money, no?<BR/>FI: Like duh, dude.<BR/>MTC: Mr. Ibuki, let's say you had to do that every single day of the year, that would come to 36,500,000 yen, now that's a huge amount of money, no?<BR/>FI: Fo' shizzle, dawg.<BR/>MTC: Okay, so, Mr. Ibuki, what did you do with the remaining 195,500,000 yen?<BR/>FI: Uh, drinks? You know, </I>Calpis<I> and </I>Pocari Sweat<I>? Oh yeah, and some snacks, like </I>Asse Chocolate<I>...</I><BR/><BR/>You get the idea.Jun Okumurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post-1168524696416168272007-01-11T23:11:00.000+09:002007-01-11T23:11:00.000+09:00MTC: The Yomiuri names "at least" six politicians,...MTC: The <I>Yomiuri</I> names "at least" six politicians, five from the LDP and one from the DPJ.<BR/><BR/>I think it all began with Matsuoka; in September, was it? Then some reporter got it into his/her head to go to the MCIA offices and take a look at the political finance records of all or some of the politicians that did what Matsuoka had been doing, i.e. register their rent-free <I>Giin Kaikan</I> room as their offices; and checked to see who had been dumping suspiciously large chunks of money there in brown bags, metaphorically speaking. The next thing the reporter did was to call the offices, ask them to comment, then write it up. Then the rest of the media caught on, and the stampede was on. Of course, it could just as easily have been you or me that started it all; we each have access to those public records, and a phone line, but we don't have the time and money to do it.<BR/><BR/>That is how I think it happened. One way to confirm this, as well as to see how the story spread, is to track down all the newspaper articles concerning this issue so far and lay them out along the timeline.<BR/><BR/>Incidentally, the <I>Yomiuri</I> says "at least six prominent Diet members". That may mean that they have yet to finish going through the list of "prominent" Diet members, let alone the "warhat" backbenchers.Jun Okumurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.com