Dr.Donna Weeks - longtime friend of Seek-Sustainable-Japan - gives insights on the top-7 candidates in Japan's LDP presidential election this month (who will be the country's prime minister) based on her 40 years of research and engagement with Japanese politics as a psephologist.

TOPICS covered in this talk:

• Politics & Sustainability?
• How did your political interest start?
• Prime Minister Kishida (67)
• Taro Kono (61)
• Shinjiro Koizumi (43)
• Takayuki Kobayashi (50)
• USA Education of candidates
• Japan gov relation to Harris vs Trump
• Yoko Kamikawa (70)
• Signaling with profile hobbies
• Tokyo Governor's Race
• Shinji Ishimaru surprise popularity
• The Social Contract
• Compulsory voting & engagement
• Article 9 Japan constitution
• Inspired by Seek Sustainable Japan
• Sanae Takaichi (63)
• Used to be easier to choose PM
• Toshimitsu Motegi (68)
• Shizo Abe's Legacy
• Shigeru Ishiba (67)
• Dr.Donna Weeks' choice
• PM must be popular
• Is Japan Silver Democracy?
• Koizumi's Circular Economy
• Transparency in Politics

Psephologist Dr. Donna Weeks has spent the last 40 years engaged with Japan's politics and peace issues and spent most of her career teaching and researching Japanese politics and peace studies at the Department of Political Science at Musashino University, Tokyo.

Now based back home in Brisbane, Australia, but still with an eye on Japanese politics Dr.Weeks can walk us through some of the candidates to look out for in this upcoming prime minister race in Tokyo, the recent Tokyo governor's race and most importantly what kind of politics we should be seeking.

Dr.Donna Weeks blog: https://psephyspix.blogspot.com/

on Instagram & threads: @psephyspix

BGM thanks to Casey Bean of The BeanPod Podcast - support Casey on BandCamp

== Get in touch with JJWalsh @jjwalsh @inboundambassador https://linktr.ee/jjwalsh ==

Great to catch up after the summer break with fellow sustainability-focused consultant Tove Kinooka on our monthly series Sustainable Japan short-takes. It was a lively discussion of connections across topics that help us find better ways to balance the needs of people and planet with profits.

Read about this podcast on MEDIUM | See the video of this podcast on YouTube

BGM thanks to Casey Bean- support his musical journey on BandCamp

Wonderful interview with the inspiring carpenter-educator-writer Douglas Brooks about more of his projects in Japan, and around the world, to preserve and celebrate the traditional wooden boats of Japan.

Watch the interview here on YouTube to add visuals to the images we are talking about.

As always, big thanks to Casey Bean for the opening and closing music - find his original tunes on BandCamp and listen to his podcast on your fave player The BEANPOD