To everyone who reads this site, we would like to wish you a Happy New Year. At the same time, we would like to say thank you for reading, listening, and commenting. We set out in August with the goal of getting out Seijigiri, a podcast on Japanese politics. We never expected to get quite the listenership we have - Seijigiri episodes are now each getting about 2,000 listens and the number is growing. We’ve also rolled out TPR News, a biweekly survey of news and events in Japan, and Shasetsu, our editorials on all things Japan. They are also growing at a healthy rate.

In the past month, we also managed to produce a Festival of Christmas Tales, which has had a positive reception. Thank you to Chris Pellegrini, Jarad Dickinson, and Garrett DeOrio for contributing pieces, as well to the others who recorded, but whose work we weren’t able to run. We are also very proud to have a new member of our team: the very talented Alex Pappas is now contributing editorials for our ongoing Shasetsu series. You can read more of Alex’s work at Japundit. We’re very happy to have you on board, Alex.

We also owe some thank-yous to other bloggers for their support. In no particular order: James at Japan Probe, Ken at What Japan Thinks, Scott at Tokyo Calling and Rich at Herro Flom Japan. They all write/blog/podcast/videocast and have sites that are very well worth your time. Your support means a lot.

Finally, in November we announced that the Business of Japan podcast would be forthcoming. We still have this in the pipeline and it will finally make it’s debut in January. Also, we will debut a monthly documentary series entitled TPR Spotlight. These will be longer, more in depth pieces done in collaboration with others. This format will allow us to step outside of our current programs and offer content that might not fit anywhere else.

There are other projects in the works, so please stay tuned. Finally, we would like to say a big thank-you to everyone who has taken the time to listen and write to us, both on the site and through email. We received a tremendous response from Garrett’s Shasetsu piece on bullying in Japan, with people emailing us to relate their own experiences and takes on the issue.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has read or listened during our first four months. We promise more for the coming year.