February 24, 2006. Volume 02, Number 08

Click here for the audio file for today's program.

Click here for the text transcript of today's program.

Thanks for tuning in again this week. Today we'll focus primarily on the fall-out from the Nagata E-Mail flap we discussed preliminarily last week. There are more details available. And we'll consider the hows, whys, and implications of this extraordinary political event.

Following that I take you on a short audio web tour of the English language site of the Lower House of Japan's Parliament, or Diet. I'll show you an easy way to get to the site, and introduce some of its more useful features. Not the least of those is the video library maintained by the site. Here we can view streaming video of the more important committee hearings and plenary sessions. A very useful experience for those interested in learning more about Japan's domestic politics. Even for those who don't understand everything being said in Japanese.

We close out the program, as usual, with a short clip of bluegrass music. This week we have a few bars of Tony Rice performing "John Wilkes Booth" from his 1992 Rounder album, "Native American."

Here are a few links to individuals and organizations mentioned on today's program.

The Democratic Party of Japan

Website of DPJ Member, Hisayasu Nagata [only in Japanese]

The Liberal Democratic Party

Rounder Records

The Japan Considered Project