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In this edition of Seijigiri, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley take a look at the 2010 budget, which was recently passed by the lower house and is thus guaranteed to become the official budget.

From there, the show moves on to examine the ongoing campaign finance scandals that threaten to undermine DPJ leadership. This leads to a discussion of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s plummeting approval ratings and his soaring disapproval ratings.

Up next is a quick look at the LDP and what they are doing as an opposition party amidst calls for their leader to resign. Will the LDP itself survive as a party?

The show ends with short discussions on the decision to shelve the bill the would allow permanent residents the right to vote in local elections and the recently proposed idea that troubles at Toyota would undermine Japan’s soft power influence.

Futenma and whaling, unfortunately, will have to wait until next time.

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It’s good to be back. Thanks to everyone who kept in touch during Seijigiri’s absence from the airwaves, or the series of tubes, or whatever it is.

In this edition of what remains perhaps Japan’s only political podcast, your hosts Ken Worsley and Garrett DeOrio take a look at what’s in store for the DPJ in its first regular Diet session. The statute of limitations for murder looks like it may be on its way out, sufferage for Special Permanent Residents is on the horizon again (but Shizuka Kamei doesn’t like it), and the fate of the relocation plan for USMC Air Station Futenma remains in question, especially as the election of new Nago Mayor Inamine would seem to uphold the views of those Okinawans who’d rather not have the Marines in their neighborhood.

All of this, though, is happening under the shadow of the scandals surrounding political fund donations to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and shday land purchases by the political fund of DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa.

Exciting times have returned.

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Be sure to spend election night with TPR. Adam Richards and Chris Gunson will be joining the Seijigiri guys on the evening (and late into the night) of Sunday, August 30th to announce, analyze, discuss, and otherwise have fun with the election results as they come in. Yes, as they come in. It’s a live video broadcast of Seijigiri.

In the current podcast:
Your hosts Ken Worsley and Garrett DeOrio return to disucss their favorite topic: elections. With a general election, and a real chance of someone other than the LDP really running the government for the first time since 1955, coming up on August 30th, there’s a lot to talk about.

Will the opposition DPJ win a majority? If so, how big might that majority be? (The numbers keep going up. While Garrett and Ken discuss the projections published by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Observing Japan, just after this was recorded, the Mainichi Shimbun blew Seijigiri’s collective mind by speculating that the DPJ might win as many as 320 of the 480 seats.)

How are the seats apportioned? What’s the difference between a single-seat district and proportional representation? How are lawmakers like the DPJ’s Akira Nagatsuma able to stay in the Diet even after they lose their races?

Perhaps most important of all, what’s going to happen if and when the DPJ wins? What pressures will they face? What will happen to the LDP?

All these questions and more are answered in this edition of Seijigiri.

Thanks for listening.

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Avid Seijigiri fans will notice that this release is out of order - the previous release was #56 and this one is #58. What’s the deal? Seijigiri #57 is the live show done at the Pink Cow in Shibuya. Due to hard drive failures, PC crashes and a host of other reasons, that release has been delayed, though hopefully it will be out within a few days.

At any rate, Seijigiri #58 is out just in time for the Tokyo Municipal Assembly elections. While Prime Minister Taro Aso and other LDP leaders continue to claim that the Tokyo elections have no bearing on national politics, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley consider this stance to be indicative of a state of denial that the LDP continues to be in. The show begins with a look at the Tokyo Municipal Elections and moves on to a discussion of its potential impact on national politics.

Some posters for candidates in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward follow. (Read on …)

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The 56th edition of Seijigiri opens with a discussion of North Korea’s recent nuclear weapon test. Co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley consider what steps Japan might take in reaction to the test, and discuss recent rabble that Japan should declare itself a nuclear power - and why that won’t happen.

After that, new US ambassador to Japan John Roos is discussed. While Joseph Nye was the presumptive choice for this post, it seems as though the Obama administration has gone down the path of rewarding a major campaign fundraiser with a plum position. Some of the predictable knee-jerk reactions to this decision are discussed along with the issues facing Mr Roos going forward.

Next on the agenda is a discussion of last week’s Diet debate between Prime Minister Aso Taro and new Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama. After that, the discussion turns to a look at the extra budget, which the ruling party is hoping to pass through the Diet in the coming weeks. Just what is taxpayer money going to be spent on?

Finally, we would like to encourage everyone to come to the Pink Cow in Shibuya on Thursday, June 4 at 7:30pm for the first ever live edition of Seijigiri. More details can be found here.

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It has been some time since the last Seijigiri release, and co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley pick things up by diving straight into current events. First, last Saturday’s election of Yukio Hatoyama as DPJ Party President is analyzed. After that, talk turns to the Lower House election which must be held by October 19, as the term of the Lower House will expire on September 11. The discussion first centers on when the election might happen, then moves on to consider what issues will come up during the election, and finally turns to how recent events have affected election outcome predictions.

This edition of Seijigiri concludes with a special rant.

As always, thank you for listening.

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Right on the heels of our Central League Status Report for April, we present to you our first monthly review for the Pacific League.

Things are very tight in the Pacific League right now with Tohoku (Rakuten) leading the way, and Chiba (Lotte)’s starting pitching keeping them in sixth. That said, the difference between first and sixth on the day that this podcast was recorded was negligible, and the Pacific League seems to be shaping up to be as exciting as it usually is.

Things that surprised us: the Orix Butchers (the 2009 Pacific League Preview podcast might help shed some light on where that moniker came from) are picking up right where they left off last season, and Fukuoka is right in the thick of the playoff hunt. This should be an exciting league to watch in 2009!
For additional information and discussion related to the 2009 baseball season, check out Tsubamegun.

Many thanks to everyone who continues to listen!

Quick tip: keep the volume down low. We’re still finding our way around the ’studio’, and the result is that there’s some background noise involved at higher volume levels. We’ll get that sorted out soon, but in the meantime, please accept our apologies for the lack of production skills on our part.

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We’re already through with the first month of the baseball season, so here’s our review of how things currently stand in the Central League.

As of the time of this recording, things were largely shaping up as we had predicted in our Central League Preview podcast which was published last month. In other words, Yomiuri is at the top of the league, and Yokohama is at the bottom.

However, things are quite a bit tighter from first through sixth than we had anticipated. That means that there’s a significant amount of competition for the three Climax Series playoff spots at this point, and while it’s still early, all six clubs are currently in with a shot.

For additional information and discussion related to the 2009 baseball season, check out Tsubamegun.

Many thanks to everyone who continues to listen!

Quick tip: keep the volume down low. We’re still finding our way around the ’studio’, and the result is that there’s some background noise involved at higher volume levels. We’ll get that sorted out soon, but in the meantime, please accept our apologies for the lack of production skills on our part.

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As promised in our last podcast, we’re back with our season preview for NPB’s Central League.

In this edition of NPB Spotlight, Dave Watkins and I (well, mostly Dave, really) try to make some sense of all the player movement that occurred during the off-season. Dave recovers a bit from the hangover he was suffering while recording our last show and is in rare form for much of this edition. His preferred metaphor when waxing poetic about the Yomiuri Giants will be of particular interest to those who regularly follow TPR’s Spotlight on Nippon Pro Yakyu.

The plan for the 2009 campaign is for us to post an NPB podcast with updates every month or so. Please check back in at the end of April for our take on the ins and outs of Japanese Professional Baseball through the first month of the season.

For additional information and discussion related to the 2009 baseball season, check out Tsubamegun.

Many thanks to everyone who continues to listen!

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With the WBC out of the way and Japan successfully defending its title, it would now seem that the time has come to turn our full attention to the 2009 NPB baseball season. We’re very excited to be able to get this out to you before the season begins this year!

In this edition of NPB Spotlight Dave Watkins and I run through the majority of the off-season player cuts and acquisitions that took place in the Pacific League. We also make a few predictions about which teams are on the way up, which ones are headed south, and also the ones that may just be treading water this season.

And please check back here again soon for the Central League season preview which will be posted in a few day’s time.

For additional information related to the 2009 baseball season, check out Tsubamegun.

As always, thank you very much for listening!

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