Did you know...

...about a guy named Koizumi Junichiro? Just started reading a ... mahjong manga based on Koizumi (who was the Japanese prime minister ). Interesting stuff, and an interesting look at this particular mangaka's viewpoint on US Presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush (in that W is shown as something of a Momma's boy, where HW is shown as being pretty strong-willed, a complete reverse of the usual characterizations). I wonder if most Japanese look at W like that?

My roommate, who is a Japanese national, holds a pretty negative view of extensive use of American military force of late, noting something that I didn't even think about: Japan's funding the American military. Not solely, of course, but I didn't realize that there are still funds going from Japanese taxpayers to American forces. I'd be pretty interested in finding out more about how that works, exactly, but as it is it seems rather unethical. I mean, I know American forces provide a certain amount of security and protection by staying in the area (especially what with recent off-shore oil issues between Japan, China and Korea) but us charging for it does seem a little...off.

Anyways, back to Koizumi, from the sounds of it he's a world leader in the same league as Reagan and Thatcher, and it's saddenning that his faction of the LDP lost power within a few years after he passed leadership on, and the LDP as a whole has now lost power to the Democratic Party in Japan. And, while I need to do more reading to be sure, it sounds like the leadership of the Democratic Party of Japan are essentially the descendants of the zaibatsu, the nobility-turned-'businessmen' that became dominant and powerful in Japan much like the Rockefeller-type families and their "Business Trusts" in the late 1800s and early 1900s here in the US. Which is to say, the DPJ seems like a pretty corrupt group.