2003.09.08

DPRK: U-S Policy Shift 'Sheer Lie' (AP via USA Today)   I guess in Pyongyang they don't follow that advice of "don't bite the hand that feeds you." 2003.09.08

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Sony throws a party. Newest models in Paris [The Register] Let's hope Sony is able to get its mojo working again. It's been too long guys. 2003.09.08

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Japan's Ruling Party Begins Elections (AP). AP - Campaigning for elections to choose a new head of Japan's ruling party began Monday with three senior lawmakers launching a bitter attack on incumbent Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic policies. [Yahoo! News - World] 2003.09.08

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Nagoya Knife (Mainichi) UPDATE Incident at the Asahi Shimbun Nagoya bureau is over. One knife-wielding man in custody. 2003.09.08

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Kim Jong Il to World: 'Psst, wanna see my birthday missile?' N.Korea May Display New Missile on 55th Birthday (Reuters). Reuters - North Korea will hold its first major military parade in a decade to celebrate its 55th birthday, and a South Korean newspaper said Monday Pyongyang may use the event to display a new long-range missile. [Yahoo! News - World] 2003.09.08

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Yen Men (Reuters via NY Times)   Currency traders report more robust intervention ordered by the Finance Ministry today to buy dollars and lower the yen. 2003.09.08

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Kinky Taku's Bad Day in Court (Mainichi)   While Taku Yamasaki might not be the LDP's most corrupt politician, he has gained a reputation at its most hentai or kinky figure. And now it is apparently OK, according to the judges, for the media to sully his image and question whether his personal behavior makes him fit for public office. Score one for the rag sheets. 2003.09.08

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Knife in Nagoya   Incident at the Nagoya bureau of Asahi Shimbun where a man wielding a knife has entered the building. More on this later... 2003.09.08

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DPRK's New Missile Can Hit Guam, Okinawa (Kyodo pickup from Chosun Ilbo)   Guam surrenders. 2003.09.08

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ODA Woes (Asahi Shimbun)   The Foreign Ministry makes a lame attempt to rebut a critical survey of Japan ODA (i.e. foreign aid). We notice that the editorial does not address the corruption element. Essentially, Japan continues to try to export its construction pork barrell spending tactics -- paving forest roads forests and building dams, using Japanese contractors, for projects that will benefit Japanese trading companies and special interests (lumber industry, for example). Locals in the countries that are supposed to benefit realize that many of these foreign "aid" projects actually do little to aid the  locals, but rather the money just ends up flowing back to Japan. It's a neat kind of money laundering, actually. 2003.09.08

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North Korea slams 'provocation' during ferry port call [The Japan Times] 2003.09.08

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Ishihara could form new party if Koizumi loses [The Japan Times] 2003.09.08

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Vying for Our Attention (The Day)   Now if we could only get rid of all the cigarette billboards. 2003.09.08

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