Dear Dave (and other forum members),

I just wanted to say thank you for this fascinating analysis, and offer one possible area for further deliberation.

One of the notable Kouhaku absentees this year was the wise philosopher and politician Tsunku, and there had been much speculation concerning the reasons behind that. Some raised the issue of Morning Musume, especially the strong stance on gender equality voiced by one of its ex-members, Yaguchi; others blamed the content of the infamous zombie musical "Stacy's" as too provocative in the context of US-Japanese relations. In any case, Tsunku has since employed an interesting strategy of gathering foreign support for next year's Kouhaku first, and only then plans to carry out a domestic campaign.

Time will tell.

Best,
Rafal
--
Rafal Zaborowski
London School of Economics and Political Science