Japan Again

Story1
On the latest flight out of SFO, the airline actually had an English language newspaper for a change, and I got to read a delightful story about Japanese politics.

For those who don't have the time to read the full story (I absolutely recommend it), here is the summary:
* The Japanese media does not print any big news story until the ruling party indicates the direction that it wants the story to take.
* This is why the story about the drunk Finance Minister at the Davo conference initially called it the result of fatigue. Later when party boss Mori indicated that Nakagawa (the Finance Minister) had been drunk, all hell broke loose and the newspapers were full of it, leading to his eventual resignation.
* Current Prime Minister Taro Aso's approval rating is single digit and the ruling party is worried they are going to lose.
* One strategy that the ruling party has used in the past has been to fill newspapers will manufactured controversies so as to prevent any meaningful discussion of issues or coverage of opposition figures.
* Such a strategy previously included Mori accusing previous Prime Minister Koizumi of serving him "hard, shriveled cheese", thus insulting him. The tabloids speculated that the cheese was in fact high quality mimolette.
* Mori is angry with the drunk Minister because his drunkenness has detracted the media from another round of invented controversies that he had lined up.

To put the sheer incredibleness of this story, lets put some American names in fictitious situations. How about Hillary drunk at a Middle Eastern summit? Or even better, a news story about Cheney.

Vice President Dick Cheney today called a press conference to allege that George Bush had insulted him by serving him Camel Meat. "It was very hard, unappetizing meat", claimed the Veep. The President's press office refused to comment, simply stating that attempts to reconcile with the Vice President were still ongoing.

However, it has been learnt from unoffical sources that the meat served to Cheney was in fact a new breed of Texan Longhorn, which Bush had personally purchased back in Crawford. There is intense speculation in the media that this is a fake controversy intented to divert attention from real issues and Bush's low approval ratings.

In today's other news, we are getting reports that the United States may have launched a full scale invasion of Canada.

We will keep you posted on the Camelgate controversy as the story develops.


Story2
At the Toshiba Oita factory, the Vendors are get to wear their own cleanroom suits.



My company's cleanroom suit must be the worst one ever invented. If you see a self consciously embarrassed figure slinking around the clean room, averting eye contact and walking in something that should be described as more a "gown" than a "suit", then you have just seen an employee of my company.

The silver lining is that if this whole semiconductor business does not pan out, the company has a bright future in Pakhtunwa's booming shuttlecock burqa market.

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