The 50th edition of Seijigiri begins with co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley discussing Japans’s 26.9 trillion yen stimulus package. This package is compared to the 24 trillion yen package that was passed in 1998. Prime Minister Aso’s desire to raise the consumption tax in three year’s time is discussed as well; does it mean anything for the Prime Minister to be telling us what he wants to happen in three years?

After that, the discussion turns to Aso’s approval ratings and public perception. Although Aso’s approval ratings have only fallen slightly, his disapproval ratings are rising, and he has not come across as likable, a quality which may prove important with an election bound to happen sometime in the next ten months.

Talk then turns to the state of the US-Japan alliance. After the US removed North Korea from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism, the predictable melodrama followed, with some saying that Japan had been stabbed in the back by its ally. Garrett describes why the US did Japan a huge favor, and Ken gives his opinion that not only will it have no long-term effect on the alliance, but that the event gave a select group of politicians and commentators their much-savored chance to let off some righteous indignation - even as the public already seems to have forgotten why they were supposed to care in the first place. Moving on…

Finally, the question of whether a Republican or Democratic US President is “better” for Japan is considered. Conventional wisdom holds that Republicans are somehow more committed to the US-Japan alliance, but does history really bear that out?

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