December 22, 2006. Volume 02, Number 45.

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Good Morning, from beautiful Spring Valley in the Midlands of South Carolina. Thanks for dropping in again. This week we consider developments related to LDP factions. Specifically, Taro Aso's creation of his own faction, that appears to be a traditional LDP faction. Then Tsutomu Takebe's organization of what we might call an "anti-faction-faction" composed of younger LDP members who have yet to join factions. Then we continue consideration of the Abe Cabinet's continuing difficulty with its relationship to Japan's attentive public, and speculate on some possible explanations.

Professor Dennis Yasutomo then joins us to provide some balance to my Kantei commentary with information about some Kantei initiatives that seem to be working as they were intended to work. Especially the Asia Gateway Project.

And we conclude with a clip from the Infamous Stringdusters' "My destination."