The 42nd release of Seijigiri is out just about on time. In this edition of the show, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley begin by looking at the continuing mess with Japan’s pension system. Last week, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe announced that although 20.25 million of the over 50 million unidentified pension records could not be identified, “As promised, the government has completed its efforts to match all the accounts to their owners by the end of March.” In reality, only 11.72 million accounts have been identified, and just over 4 million have been put into the system.

From there, the discussion turns to look at how party politics are playing out in the process of finding a new Governor for the Bank of Japan. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate, current Deputy Governor Toshiro Muto, has been rejected by the opposition controlled Upper House. Although this story is still active and being played out, it seems as though the DPJ’s near-shameless politicalization of the issue is actually good for Japan in some ways.

After that, Seijigiri takes a look at newly formed citizen group Sentaku, a movement which, in the words of Jun Okamura, “[D]ecries the political passivity on the part of the public and the reliance on the central bureaucracy and seeks to launch a thoroughgoing reform in the way we live and work by way of a new bottom-up, people’s rights movement.” Who’s involved and what are they up to?

Finally, a quick glance is made towards North Korea, as the Japanese government has decided to extend the economic sanctions against the country that were set to expire in April. Although Japan’s issues with North Korea have has low priority in the news cycle over the past few months, our hosts postulate on just what might happen to push North Korea back on the front page.

As always, thank you for listening!

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