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The Japanese government does so many things right. At the simple level of helping citizens and visitors, they provide fine government websites; most of them are informative and interesting, goals not always achieved by governmental bodies globally. Most have excellent English content in addition to the Japanese content. Local government bodies do well also. Look at Hyogo Prefecture (www.pref.hyogo.jp) and Tokyo’s Metropolitan government web pages (www.metro.tokyo.jp). Japan sets a high standard, and one to be rightly proud of.
SM-2 missile firing can be seen in this fantastic image [Photo feature]
The VOA reports on President Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi pressing President Putin at the G-8 summit. [Reprint]
New ODA announcment from the Foreign Ministry. [Article]
When a single cow with mad cow disease was discovered in Hokkaido, the sale of beef products plummeted. Housewives instantly not only stopped buying from the butcher and the plastic-wrapped cuts in suupaa but items that contained miniscule amounts of beef bits such as cosmetics. [Commentary]
For several years, both Japanese government debt and bank debt have taken a beating from various credit rating agencies reporting sometimes astonishing weakness. However deservedly in some banks’ cases, it seems clear that some of this concern was overblown. [Commentary]
