July 13, 2007. Volume 03, Number 25

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Greetings again from Spring Valley in the Midlands of South Carolina. I will be traveling for the next few weeks. So, Japan Considered Podcast postings until mid-August will depend entirely upon my access to WiFi connections to the Internet. Both to collect political and international news from Japan, and to upload the programs produced from the information collected. I hope you keep checking back, though. I haven't "Pod-Faded," as Scott Fletcher used to say.

This week we look briefly at a couple of significant international issues. First, Japan's role in the international effort to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons development. Then at publication of the Ministry of Defense's first Defense White Paper. With focus on the section devoted to analysis of China's military development.

Then we return to the national political scene, and consider the run-up to the July 29th Upper House election. The official campaign period began yesterday, Thursday the 12th. How will Japan's potential voters respond. There is near-unanimous agreement among Japan's political press, Punditocracy, and Tenurate that the LDP under Shinzo Abe's leadership is headed for a loss. A big loss. As one important issue, we consider the origins and significance of SIA's lost pension payments, and what is to be done.