This article is the first of a 4-part series through Friday this week, which will look at what Hatoyama had to say yesterday. On Wednesday I will look at the concept of yuai (’fraternity’) and Hatoyama’s hopes for Japanese society. On Thursday I will cover the economics portion of the speech, and will finish up with foreign policy and Hatoyama’s closing remarks on Friday.
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Japanese Politician Gives Best/Worst Speech Ever
This is a REAL politician named Toyama Koichi who ran for the Prefectual governor of Tokyo "County". Every politician is given equal airtime in Japan to explain their platform, and the TV stations must broadcast their speeches without editing. Despite "despising" each & every viewer, he received 15,000 votes.
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Category: Politics Tags:
The Speech Contest
Another student came up a little later and held forth about the green house effect on the global climate. Not the way a 14 year old Japanese student would talk about it but the way a college student might. A very persuasive native English speaking future cum laude college student, I should say.
“She was…” my co-sufferer had begun, but couldn’t find the words.

Category: Living in Japan Tags:
Japanese researchers train beluga whale to 'speak'
A group of Japanese researchers has managed to train a beluga whale to "speak" by using a range of sounds to identify different objects. Here's hoping they can apply what they learn to teach people how to communicate better.
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