Volume 02, Number 38.

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Thanks for tuning in again. Or "Welcome" if you've just found the program. Each week on the Japan Considered Podcast we select a few recent events in the news related to Japan and consider what they tell us about how Japan manages its domestic politics or its international relations. Or both!

This week we complete our tour of Japan's Kantei, or central political executive, with a closer look at the office of the Chief Cabinet Secretary, and the new incumbent, Yoshihisa Shiozaki. You can see his personal website by clicking here. Quite an impressive undertaking that tells us, I think, something about him as a policy actor and as the second-most important person in Japan's government.

Then we return to consideration of how Japan has responded to North Korea's recent nuclear test provocation through an interview with Mr. Gregg Rubinstein, director of GAR Associates, and a long-experienced expert on Japan-U.S. defense relations. Gregg actually knows one end of a missile from the other. So his comments are especially valuable.