What did we miss?  What do you want to know?  Was anything in Seijigiri unclear?  Do we need to give more time to any topics?  Let us know.

If you have any questions, comments, complaints, or (dare we hope?) praise, drop us a line at transpacificradio@gmail.com or leave a post here on the site.  We’re planning a brief Q & A to follow Seijigiri and we always strive to put together the best show we can.  So, let us have it.  We appreciate any and all feedback we get - positive or negative.

Thanks.

This post is the second supplement to the Seijigiri Inaugural release. Here is a list of online resources concerning Japan’s political parties:

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) website

LDP website in English - Note the difference between the Japanese and the English sites in visual terms.

The Democratic Party of Japan website

DPJ website in English - The DPJ English site actually makes an effort at giving (almost) current news. They’re about a month behind at the moment, due to some ‘technical problems.’

The New Komeito website

New Komeito website in English

(Read on …)

This post is a supplement to the Seijigiri Inaugural release. In this release, the connection between political party New Komeito and religious organization Soka Gakkai was mentioned. However, due to time constraints we were unable to provide further information. This supplement is meant to provide a starting ground for further reading.

Links

New Komeito Website

New Komeito’s Views on Politics and Religion in Japan

Why Politics - at Sokanet

Soka Spirit’s US Website

Soka Gakkai International

Soka Gakkai International USA

A Sect’s Political Rise Creates Uneasiness in Japan - The New York Times

The Power of Soka Gakkai - Time Magazine

A View of Religion in Japan - Japan Society

Japan’s Holy Wildcard - Time Asia

Wikipedia

New Komeito

Soka Gakkai

Daisaku Ikeda (President of Soka Gakkai International)

The inaugural edition of Seijigiri (政治せいじ斬ぎり), a podcast focusing on Japanese and East Asian news and politics, is now available for download. The inaugural edition is a primer on Japanese politics and government.

Thank you for listening.

Listen Now:

 Seijigiri Inaugural: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For those who want to review, who couldn’t hear us clearly, or can’t listen when they want to for any reason, here’s a transcript of the Inaugural edition of Seijigiri.
(Read on …)

One day in June, Garrett came to me with the idea of starting a podcast focused on Japanese news and politics. I thought he had a great idea, but I knew I didn’t have the time to do it. But he kept talking about it. After a few lunches together, I realized he was actually imagining something bigger and bolder - something like an online podcast station with serveral different releases - something I really wanted to do. I thought this idea was even better, but there was no way I had time for something like that.

Two months later, here we are. Ideas usually win out in the end, and we’re glad to finally be online. Our first release, the inaugural edition of Seijigiri, will be out soon. We’ll go through some growing pains, but we hope that our projects and releases will offer something that interests people as well as provides a level of depth missing from most coverage of the East Asia region.

Thank you for visiting, and thank you for listening. We hope you enjoy our materials.

Ken Worsley (and Garrett DeOrio!)