Friday, December 30, 2005, Vol 01, No 07

Best wishes to you and yours for a Happy and Productive New Year. This is the last podcast in the Japan Considered series for this year. Thanks for listening. Check in at www.JapanConsidered.ORG for well annotated links to additional English language information on political and diplomatic Japan. Click the "Interviews" link in the navigation bar to go to a steadily increasing number of interviews with noted Japan specialists. Two more informative interviews are coming in the near future, for a total of 12 this year.

This week most of Japan is on vacation. But a lot still was going on. We consider the nature of news coverage and public relations during slow-news periods in Japan, the publication of census data that showed an earlier-than-expected beginning of the decline of Japan's population, and government efforts to demonstrate that they are trying to take counter-measures, report of the suicide last year of an official of Japan's Consulate in Shanghai who left notes suggesting he was being blackmailed by a Chinese intelligence official, and a tour of the website maintained by the Office of Japan's Prime Minister. We close the show with a few more bars of The Dirty River Band's "Crooked Smile," progressive bluegrass that's bound to brighten your day.

Links to individuals and organizations mentioned in today's show follow:

The Japan Considered Project

The Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo

Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare

National Institute of Population and Social Security Research

Minister Kuniko Inoguchi

Kantei Meeting of the Council for Gender Equality

Discussion of Japan's Press Clubs from Japan Media Review

People's Republic of China Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Kantei Website Main Page

The Dirty River Band of Washington, D.C.


This link takes you to the audio file for the program.