If there’s one thing about Japan of which the Anglophone world can’t get enough, it’s probably anime. If there’s a second, though, it’s TPR’s own Ken Worsley talking about the collapse of Nova.

Following his appearances on ABC Radio National’s Life Matters and Radio New Zealand National’s Morning Report, our man was interviewed for #711 of the “MetPod,” Metropolis’s podcast (which also recently interviewed frequent TPR contributor Arudou Debito.) Ken appears 11 minutes into Part 2.

In addition to the interview, Ken has the cover story in the current issue of Metropolis magazine, now under the ownerhsip of Japan Inc., for which Ken also writes. This is in addition to his article in the current issue of Metropolis, his interview with the Japan Times, and of course his coverage of Nova’s decline over at Japan Economy News.

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.

Listen Now:

 Ken Worsley on Radio New Zealand: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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.)

Listen Now:

 Seijigiri #32: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this long-overdue edition of Japan’s lone political podcast, Tobias Harris, author of Observing Japan and correspondent to the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Wall Street Journal, as well as former staffer to a DPJ Diet member, does us the honor of filling in for Ken Worsley.

Mr. Harris chats with Garrett DeOrio about the upcoming LDP presidential election and what could be accomplished and needs to be done by the soon-to-be Fukuda administration.

Your hosts also delve into some of the problems facing the Japanese body politic in general, especially the growing gap in interests and productivity between the urban and rural regions of Japan and what that means for both the LDP and DPJ.

As if that weren’t enough, Mr. Harris scrutinizes the lingering impact of Koizumi and how that has affected the LDP and will continue to affect it in the future.

So, yes, the race is Fukuda’s to lose, if you’re wondering.

(Editor’s note:  Sorry about the quiet audio - it’s audible, but you’ll want to turn the volume up.)

Listen Now:

 Seijigiri #31: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Foreign Policy has recently published a short but insightful interview with Gerald Curtis, the Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Professor Curtis has been honored with The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the government of Japan for his outstanding contributions to the study of Japan and the promotion of intellectual and political exchange between Japan and the United States.

Here are some highlights from that interview:

FP: …It seems like there’s been more reaction to the comfort women issue in the United States than in Asia. Why would the U.S. Congress want to get involved in a controversy that’s between Japan, China, and South Korea, but has nothing to do with the United States?

GC: It’s true that the congressional resolution that Congressman [Mike] Honda [of California] put forward deals with an issue that Americans are not directly a party to, which was the use of women in Asia for forced sex with the Japanese military. But when the Japanese prime minister sounded as though he was defending the actions of the Japanese military during the war, by saying that in some narrow sense, these women were not forced into prostitution—I mean, it’s really outrageous—that not only angered Korean-Americans and Chinese-Americans and others who have a direct interest in this issue, but it angered anybody who’s concerned about human rights and women’s rights. And the prime minister and the leadership in Japan handled it almost as badly as could be imagined. More recently, he’s been trying to undo the damage by saying that, as prime minister of Japan, he feels these women’s pain, he apologizes, and that he reaffirms the statement that was made in the 1990s by the then chief cabinet secretary, Mr. Kono, which was an official government apology for the treatment of these women.

FP: Is that enough?

(Read on …)

Last Saturday, March 3, Garrett, Ken and Albrecht Stahmer sat down for a talk with social activist and naturalized Japanese citizen Arudou Debito. The talk actually lasted for hours, and as it stretched on, veered away from the initial interview structure that had been set up.

With this release, we have kept one hour of material in which Debito touches upon how he came to be a social activist, the cultural politics of Japanese identity, acceptance of him as a Japanese and his work in the Japanese and foreign communities, Japan’s educational system, the ‘Japanese Only’ phenomenon, Education Minister Ibuki Bunmei, human rights and butter, the state of the Democratic Party of Japan, what sort of law against discrimination he would like to see in Japan…and his hopes for Japan’s future.

Special thanks to Debito for joining us and talking to us, and to Albrecht for making his fourth appearance as a guest on Sejigiri.

Listen Now:

 Seijigiri 19: Arudou Debito: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download