You say "Otaku"...

...and I say "Back, back, Spawn of the Unnatural!"

Ah, gaming shows...what Amaterasu has wrought to make automobile shows and car races seem demure, unexploitative...and sane.

Tremble, tremble ye mere mortals before SONY Playstation 3's March of the Fembots!


At the Capcom booth, the CEO, the CTO and the COO are waiting to respond to any questions you may have about the company's 2007 line of products.



If you are a glutton for punishment, Mainichi Shimbun has uploaded 1001 of such images from Tokyo Game Show 2006.

For those wishing to attend in person, sorry, show's over.

Second Call

Hmmm...so it is Ishihara Nobuteru for Deputy Secretary General of the LDP.

Ishihara is unaligned. Giving him such a powerful and visible party post demonstrates a determined independence on Abe's part. Either that or he expects the Deputy Secretary General to be making a lot of television appearances over the next nine months.

Scratch Ishihara from my list of Special Advisors to the Prime Minister.

Nikai Toshihirō as kokutai iinchō is also an interesting choice.

I had hoped that Abe would see the wisdom of appointing a noted China friend to the post of Foreign Minister. Nikai in the Foreign Ministry could have sweetened the sour and bitter in the relationship with Japan's big neighbor. Instead, Nikai will be working his mild magic on making sure the Kōmeitō is on board with the Abe program--a very, very tough job.

So, is it an Aso vs. Shiozaki smackdown contest for the MOFA post?

And who is going to be Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Trade Pact Evisceration--a ministry post I missed the first time around?

First call

For the Sanyaku:

Secretary General - Nakagawa Hidenao (Kaching!)

Chairman of the General Council - Niwa Yūya

Chairman of the Policy Research Council - Nakagawa Shōichi


Well, one of out of three is not too bad. With Nakagawa Hidenao as kanjichō, no one will be losing his head to dentition.

I guessed that a faction leader had to be in charge of the General Council. It turned out to be Niwa rather than Tsushima.

Does Niwa's taking over the sōmukaichō post doom faction underling Shiozaki Yasuhisa's chances of getting a power post?

I had picked Nakagawa Shōichi to be the point man for pre-election economic support policy through an appointment to the MLIT. Instead, Nakagawa is going to be in charge of the whole policy shebang.

I did get right the need for a sitting Cabinet minister in the policy post, both in order to take responsibility for the current policy mix and to forestall embarrassing swings in policy stance.

Nakagawa Shōichi is coming straight of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. His appointment to the post of seichōkaichō is a riposte to Democratic Party leader Ozawa Ichiro's blunt wooing of the rural and economic loser vote.


All these appointments--even and especially the election of Abe Shinzō as LDP president--are an attempt to forge a team capable of defending the LDP's backside in the July 2007 House of Councillors elections.

Look for the possibility that the minor factions get spikes driven through their hearts tomorrow.

For the Dum-Dah-Dum-Dum File

I have been wondering for a while about the apparent discrepancy between the number of registered young foreign workers and the number of non-Japanese employees I encounter at the various businesses I patronize in the downtown area.

According to this evening's Yomiuri Shimbun, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has begun asking a few questions too.

外国人雇用報告を義務化、不法就労防止に法改正へ (Sorry, Japanese only at this point)

厚生労働省は２２日、外国人を雇用している事業主に対し、外国人労働者の人数、名前、国籍などの報告を義務付ける制度を創設する方針を固めた。

It seems that someone has taken the Justice Department's figure of 2.01 million registered foreign residents, laid it alongside the Health, Labor and Welfare's figure of 340,000 foreign workers in Japan, and started to do some serious thinking about the relationship between those two numbers.

Further Irresponsibility

I realize that in yesterday's listing of potential Cabinet and party post appointments, I left out some big fish.

Shimomura Hakubun - has been a long time Abe collaborator. He was up front, next to, behind and damn near on top of Abe during the campaign this summer. He has to go somewhere--but where? If he becomes the Justice Minister--he has already been Parliamentary Secretary at Justice--where will Abe stuff both Wakabayashi Masatoshi or the other member from the House of Councillors to be named later?

Yamamoto Ichita - another water carrier for Abe this summer, he deserves to be made Deputy Secretary General.

I also referred in my previous irresponsible post to the Three Cheerleaders. In truth, it should be the Four Cheerleaders - I forgot Ōbuchi Yūko.

Rumors about Ōbuchi being selected for a Cabinet post are not to be believed. How many times has she been elected to the Diet? Thrice.

What? Not in a Japanese Court?!?

It can't be!

For once, just this once, a Japanese judge gets it sort of right.

Japanese Court Gives Teachers Rare Win
The Associated Press

By CHISAKI WATANABE -TOKYO - Thursday, September 21, 2006; 11:05 AM - A court ruled Thursday that an order forcing Tokyo teachers to stand before Japan's flag and sing an anthem to the emperor violated the constitution, a rare victory for the country's waning pacifist movement, plaintiffs' lawyers said.

The decision bolstered opponents of Japan's growing emphasis on patriotism.

I say "sort of right" because Tokyo District Court Judge Namba Kōichi did not reaffirm an absolute right to freedom of thought and conscience. The plaintiffs' arguments were accepted because the court deemed their objections serious--that the flag and the anthem were used to promote militarism and worship of the imperial house in the pre-1945 era and thus cannot be seen even now in a neutral or unbiased light.

I really do not like that "even now" (genzai de mo), as it contains the seed of a future "Well, we are like so over that now!" dismissal of the complaint.

I would also have preferred that the judge affirm a right to sit down and remain silent, even if one's reasons for doing are ridiculous ("The flag looks like an umeboshi in the middle of a rectangular plate of white rice and I hate umeboshi!")

This struggle is not over, of course. Ishihara Shintarō has prove his masculinity on this one, so the Tokyo Metropolitan District will waste yet more tax resources on an appeal.

As the article notes, this decision will drive those who have been seeking revisions of the constitution and Basic Education Law into hysterical raving madness.

Denunciations of the "excesses" of "activist judges", anyone?

Something for the education reformers

...to consider...

If you have not done so already, I would recommend reading Okumura Jun's recent blog post on the ideological diffferences still lingering in minds of surviving Japanese Imperial Army officers resulting from the differences in their schooling.

The Imperial Army Officers Also Have Their Two Sides to the War Narrative

Patriotic education, indeed.

The Shakai Kakusa illusion - more evidence from the United States

Hal Varian of UCB, writing in The New York Times, has put together a well-written but disastrously hyperlinked reexamination of the increase in income disparities in the U.S. during the Clinton years.

Many Theories on Income Inequality, but One Answer Lies in Just a Few Places

According to research being led economist James K. Galbraith at the University of Texas Inequality Project the tech boom led to concentrations of wealth in an incredibly small geographic area, leaving much of the country unchanged throughout the decade.

U.S. national figures show increasing income disparity over the course of the Clinton presidency. The increase in the Clinton era, however, was not due to the rich of American grabbing and keeping more of the nation's wealth for themselves. If one makes a single small adjustment to the data - replacing the economic growth experienced in 4 of America's 3,100 counties - Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco Counties of California and King County, Washington - with the national rate of economic expansion, then the radical growth in income disparity in the years 1992 to 2000 simply fades away.

See the slide show:

Measuring Inequality - a practical workshop on theory and technique

Slide 61 shows the result of the thought experiment--though the presentation is worth going through for the interesting things it has to say about the structural differences in the growth of inequality in Russia and China.

And the discussion starting on page 11 of the paper:

Income Distribution and the Information Technology Bubble

So now how many people (please raise your hands) believe that one could find 4 municipalities of Japan which would have an equally powerful effect on national statistics--that is, if we replaced their growth since 1992 with the national average, one would see the shakai kakusa disappear?

What are those four municipalities?

Ok, let's see:

Tokyo Metropolitan District, Minato City...


P.S. The Inequality Project has a nice list of papers on rises in inequality around the world.

Nothing on Japan, though.

We Do Blue

My, my...doesn't the LDP's home page look spiffy today.


Still, it is nice of the party to have the totals for all the candidates, along with their bios and the lists of their supporters.

The Sanyaku and the Ministries - Irresponsible, Wild Guesses

First, as regards the Sanyaku:

LDP Secretary General - Nakagawa Hidenao
Because the current mix of monetary and fiscal policy is largely his creation. He should have to defend it in next year's elections. Also, if he is not named either kanjichō or kambōchōkan, he will bite off someone's head.

LDP Chairman of the General Council - Tsushima Yūji
Because being the head of the second largest faction has to mean something, d-d-d-dang nabbit. He would also get to repeat his pet phrase--"Mine is the largest faction in the House of Councillors"--a lot, to great effect.

Chairman of the Policy Research Council - Aso Tarō
Because he needs some better reading material. It also will give Nakagawa the opportunity to beat him up every so often.


The Cabinet - see if you can forgive, me...please.

Chief Cabinet Secretary - Yosano Kaoru
Because Abe cannot have Mori faction members as both kanjichō and the kambōchōkan. Having Yosano as Chief Cabinet Secretary will also cut down on the number of people coddling the bureaucracy-- the government offices and residences are all in Yosano's electoral district anyway.

Finance - Yanagisawa Hakuo
Because I would not want him in this post (just thinking about the masochistic policies he will promote gives me a headache). He'll look great in the G8 group photos, though.

Foreign Affairs - Nikai Toshihirō
A big surprise, if it happens - a lot of folks are betting on an Aso Tarō repeat here, especially after he picked up 136 votes in the presidential race. But seriously, can the same old face be used to sell the idea that Abe premiership represents a brand new start? Shiozaki Yasuhisa is still a little too too young get to a post this big at such a sensitive time. Choosing Shiozaki might convince Koga Makoto to stop griping, however.

Economics, Trade and Industry - Okuda Hiroshi
Because what's good for Toyota Motors and the Nippon Keidanren is good for Japan.

Justice - some old person we have never heard of before
Because it has always been thus, Grasshopper. Perhaps this is where they will stick Wakabayashi Masatoshi.

Health, Labor and Welfare - The Kōmeitō Dude
Because its what the Kōmeitō wants, Grasshopper. Always.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport - Nakagawa Shōichi
Just to keep him off the streets, basically. Also, after a year of Kitagawa, the MLIT folks will be wanting someone a little more feisty.

Education, Science and Technology - Takaichi Sanae
Because if Takaichi-san were trying any harder to get Abe's attention, she would be committing adultery. Abe has to put a woman in a highly visible and sensitive ministerial post, and among the Three Cheerleaders, Takaichi's has the most Diet experience.

Environment - a non-politician
Because this post is all about appearances, not commitments.

Defense Agency - Kyūma Fumio
Because he would so love to be the first true Minister of Defense.


And in the Kantei

Ishihara Nobuteru - Special Advisor on Local Administration
Nakayama Kyōko - Special Advisor on North Korean Abductions
Yamamoto Yūji - Special Advisor on Income Disparities
??? - Special Advisor on Education Reform
??? - Special Advisor on Constitutional Revision

The last two Special Advisor posts are radioactive--both in terms of the subject matter and the people Abe heretofore has been seeking advice from.