Leave it to the board of trustees of this fine weblog to compensate for what our chief officer insists is "a slight dip in production" with images and connotations that should help at least half of uBlog's readership forget all about philosophy in politics and enjoy their Friday.
In a curious trans-Pacific parallel, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has, like President Bush, challenged his country's bureaucratic convention on a matter which all but the most sagacious and altruistic politicians would consider worth too little for the hefty investment of time and esteem. The trouble is ponderous, Twentieth-Century subsidy: in America, Bush moves to reform of Social Security; in Japan, Koizumi seeks subdivision and private administration of a sprawling Japan Post that, like a gargantuan zaibatsu conglomerate of old, provides citizens with everything from parcel delivery to savings accounts to life insurance. Like Bush, Koizumi enjoys a sizable if hesitant majority and a rhetorical advantage over his opponents but the prime minister has got one thing his Washington executive counterpart hasn't: a politically inclined corsetiere.
It seems Triumph International Japan Ltd. is so keen on placing the postman in the free market that the undergarment manufacturer thought it would try a memorable appeal for the private sector. Enter knockout Yu Misaki, who recently offered Tokyo fashion photographers an attractive solution for mailbox and letter carrier in one — two, rather. Triumph calls its little getup "Total Surprise Bra," complete with gratuitous exclamation point, and while the approach to grudge-match politics is novel the design and framing of argument are strikingly familiar. But it's effective. Koizumi could always use a push up in the polls, and this pledge of bipartisan support is a perfect fit.
Soccer, a whale and a crown prince in this week's standing ovation for the greatest thing that ever happened to domestic affairs.