Adam Richards, of Mutant Frog Travelogue fame, joins Garrett DeOrio in the TPR studio to discuss Yasuo Fukuda’s election as Prime Minister of Japan, what his Cabinet is shaping up to look like, and more. When you ask Adam about Fukuda, though, you get a very thorough answer.

Your hosts follow a thread from Koizumi, on the impact of whose hair Mr. Richards might be the world’s foremost expert, to Abe, to Fukuda, which takes a while, so this is the first of two shows, the next one will be out soon.

Thank you for listening.

(Read on …)

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For those who did not catch Ken Worsley’s brief interview with Radio New Zealand on the state of Nova this week, or couldn’t listen with Windows Media player, here it is in mp3 format.

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Hope is a good thing.

I hope that all Nova employees who have not been paid by the company receive their salary and see any personal hardship end. I hope they will not be soured on Japan because of the immoral (if not criminal) actions of this company’s top management. I also hope that they will be able to find employment and continue living in Japan as taxpayers (not guests) if they choose to do so. I hope that management will stop lying to them.

What am I talking about? A rumor was floated this afternoon and passed on to me in a phone conversation. According to this story, Nova will either be announcing a buyout tomorrow or a ‘cash injection’ from an unknown investor.

Could it actually happen?

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Another email arrived tonight from a new Nova instructor:

I just wanted to tell you my story, since I’m sure you’ve heard from about as many people as you wish to. However, I feel that I should get the word out somehow.

Nova brought a bunch of recruits over here on September 5th. We were clueless. They told us nothing of the impending doom, or of any financial problems. After working for one week, rumors start to go around that the Titled Instructors haven’t been paid. They still haven’t.

Apparently, a new shipment of recruits arrived just last week. They are worse off than I am. But I feel like I have been royally screwed. I can’t afford another plane ticket right now. I won’t be getting the salary advance I was promised. I probably won’t see a paycheck come October 15th. I have no experience, so finding another job is really unlikely, considering there are about 5,000 other foreigners out looking. Nova has put us in an unbelievable situation, and a lot of us have no idea what to do…

..My interview was done many months ago, before everything seemed to go downhill. However, when the recruiting office contacted me in July and then again in August, nothing was said about the situation. We were led blindly, thinking that everything was fine and that the job would be stable. We were told, in the interview, that there would be great opportunities for overtime…

…It is a very difficult time for all of us. Some feel like we deserve it, because Nova no longer has a decent reputation. However, the instructors have nothing to do with that. Most of us came over looking for a job. We needed the money. And now we’re suffering because of Nova’s stupidity…

No one deserves this treatment. I see grounds for a class action lawsuit here, and I hope that something is put together by employees who have been affected.

I’ve been receiving email from Nova employees, reporters and, in one case, the concerned parents of a Nova instructor. Thank you to everyone who has been writing to us and commenting, and thank you to all those who are in a position at media sources to publicize what has been going on with this company.

I would like to share an email with our readers. This arrived last night:

(Read on …)

What do you do when you become the man in the know on the Nova fiasco?� You talk to Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report about it.

Our man Ken Worsley is on the phone with them as this is published, answering New Zealand’s questions about Nova’s financial crisis, which affects the at least 500 New Zealanders currently employed by Nova and is surely of interest to the thousands more who have worked there in the past.

The interview will air on tomorrow morning’s edition of the show, at 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, NZ time, which is 5:00 a.m., Japan time, or 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, US Eastern time.

As with everything else in the past few days, newly-elected LDP President Yasuo Fukuda’s election as Prime Minister of Japan went pretty much exactly as predicted.

The DPJ controls the House of Councillors (the Upper House) and nominated their leader, Ichiro Ozawa, for Prime Minister.� The LDP, which� still controls the more powerful House of Representatives (the Lower House), nominated their new president.� The two sides quickly came to an impasse, which led to a stalemate, which led to Yasuo Fukuda becoming Prime Minister, due to a constitutional provision that grants the power to choose the Prime Minister to the House of Representatives in a situation such as today’s.

The next thing to see will be Fukuda’s full Cabinet line-up, which is not looking very promising so far.� Taro Aso has refused a Cabinet post, but, at this point, six of th eight other faction heads are in, which has cause DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama to call the Fukuda administration a return to the LDP’s bad old days.� At this point, it’s hard to disagree.

More, much, much more, to come in the soon-to-be release post-election edition of Seijigiri, with guest Adam Richards.

Some big names within the LDP were appointed to key posts in Yasuo Fukuda’s cabinet. The appointees were named this morning.

It should come as no surprise that these guys were very helpful in building support for Fukuda, 71, in the two weeks before yesterday’s LDP intra-party presidential election.

Fukuda’s right hand man, the LDP secretary general, will be 69-year-old education minister Bunmei Ibuki.

Sadakazu Tanigaki, 62, the former finance minister, has been named chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council.

Another former LDP secretary general, Makoto Koga, 67, became the leader of the LDP Election Strategy Committee.

Toshihiro Nikai, the 68-year-old chairman of the LDP General Council under former prime minister Shinzo Abe, has retained his post in the new cabinet.

All of these men are either current or former faction leaders.

Yasuo Fukuda will be elected prime minister tomorrow, Tuesday September 25, 2007.

Welcome to the 2007 edition of the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election!

Media coverage of the festivities is scheduled to commence at 2pm Japan time (16 hours ahead of PST, 13 ahead of EST, 9 ahead of GMT).

This election pits two LDP heavyweights, Taro Aso and Yasuo Fukuda, against each other. For those readers who haven’t been following the news, here’s a quick Who’s who?:

The underdog: Taro Aso. (grandson of former prime minister, Shigeru Yoshida)

Why he won’t win: He angered his colleagues by not divulging his insider-knowledge of an impending “surprise” resignation by former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Caught off guard, embarrassed LDP faction leaders rushed to support Aso’s competitor, Yasuo Fukuda.

The favorite: Yasuo Fukuda (son of former prime minister, Takeo Fukuda)

Why he will win: Very few LDP politicians like Taro Aso. Fukuda has already rounded up a strong majority of support from both LDP Diet members and the party’s prefectural chapters.

There won’t be any surprises this afternoon: Yasuo Fukuda will be the next president of the LDP. Consequently, that means that he will be Japan’s next prime minister.

Despite the lack of excitement, come back here for updates on the election as it unfolds.

Update 1:
[2:15 pm]
The prefectural votes are in. Fukuda won 54% to Aso’s 46%.

(Read on …)

In this continuation of the conversation started in Seijigiri #31, Messrs. Harris and DeOrio talk about the foreign policy steps soon-to-be Prime Minister Fukuda might or should take.

What changes ought to take place in the US-Japan relationship? How will Japan’s relationship with its neighbors change? Why is it in Japan’s interests to be more assertive on the international stage?

Listen in as the author of Observing Japan holds forth on these and other topics.

As always, thanks for listening to the best political podcast in Japan (even if only by default.)

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