In this edition of Seijigiri, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley begin by discussing the visit of 67 lawmakers to the Yasukuni Shrine on Thursday, decide it is no longer relevant, and move on to a discussion of Japan’s role in the war in Afghanistan. This is followed by a discussion of when a Lower House election might come, what might spur it, and how it could turn out.

After that, the discussion turns to a short look at the politicization of consumption taxes and how this issue could hurt the LDP (again). This leads to the funding of the pension system, and why that issue matters more to voters than Afghanistan. Following that, our hosts consider the issue of Article Nine and whether it is actually important. Finally, the future of Prime Minister Fukuda, and former Foreign Minister Taro Aso are discussed, along with the final nail in the coffin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Beautiful Japan” project.

We would like to express a huge debt of thanks to Tobias Harris of Observing Japan and Adam Richards of the Mutant Frog Travelogue for appearing as guest commentators on Seijigiri over the past two months. Their contributions to the show have been invaluable, and we have been humbled by their writings on Japan. We look forward to having them both back soon.

By the way, we have new software and some new hardware. We think things sound much better. We’re excited about this and hope we can learn to use it and get the most out of it all soon.

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