Volume 02, Number 30.

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Thanks for tuning in again. This is the week in which Japan celebrates its annual O-Bon festival. Folks leave the metropolitan areas to return home, there to commune with the spirits of their ancestors and with their extended families. Nothing much is supposed to happen, because Tokyo has become a ghost town of another sort. Well, that didn't happen this week. Lots going on, much of it of importance to our program.

This week we begin with a discussion of Japan's response to the incident in which a Russian patrol boat fired on a Japanese fishing vessel, off Hokkaido, killing one of the crewmen. Then we discuss the real significance of Prime Minister Koizumi's visit on Tuesday, August 15th, to Yasukuni Shrine. And we close with consideration of the role Prime Minister Koizumi will play in Japan's domestic politics and international relations once he leaves the premiership. It will be important, I think. And virtually nothing has been written about it in the Japanese political press.

As always, send your comments to me at RobertCAngel@gmail.com, and visit the Japan Considered Project at www.JapanConsidered.org for additional information about Japan's politics and foreign relations.