2013 Draws to a Close

Well the year is almost over, and I certainly won’t miss it. 2013 was a tough year. I only hope 2014 will be a little easier on the nerves.

To say I have been busy would be a slight understatement. As you have noticed, I have not had a chance to update my blog in a couple of months. In those couple of month, a lot has transpired. I worked on multiple projects, some I can mention and some I can’t. I went to New York Comic Con to help CBLDF’s efforts to educate and encourage dialogue regarding censorship of manga and anime. I also helped CBLDF’s appearence at Comitia 106 in October. I will be heading out to Comiket 85 now. This year’s winter Comiket will run right up to Dec. 31st, so I may not have a chance to write an entry into this blog again this year. Happy holidays and happy new years.

Some interesting stuff:
I wrote and translated all the artist profiles included in khara’s latest 2014-2015 calendar.
http://www.evastore.jp/pc/article/Z0000601.html
I see people are already talking about it in the English language forums. I am not sure how orders can be placed from overseas, but the calendar will be available from many Japanese retail outlets, so I would assume one of them might be willing to ship them overseas. I looked around a little and noticed that Amazon Japan has them for sale.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00FJOLWZE/

Takeshi Nogami will be publishing two Kankore books at Comiket 85. I translated one of the books, a faux fleet girls military photo chronicle into English. I tried my best to replicate the faux military historical narrative touch of the text written by Mr. Jofuu Kuroda. They match Nogami’s artwork wonderfully. I hope my English text will do so as well.
Check out Takeshi Nogami’s Twitter account for more information.
https://twitter.com/takeshi_nogami

I’ve also done a bunch of other work, but let me just skip ahead to my trip to New York. The last time I was in New York was over 25 years ago, and this was my first New York Comic Con. I had wonderful discussions with many people and appreciated the enthusiasm people had for this unique medium. I would like to expend my sincere gratitude to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Here’s some more information about that trip.
http://cbldf.org/2013/10/manga-freedom-at-nycc/

Well the Japanese Diet was back in session for a couple of months, and Prime Minister Abe had his hands full. The consumption tax will be raised next year. A huge economic relief package is also being prepared. The negotiations over the Trans Pacific Partnership is in full swing. A Special State Secrets Protection Law has passed the Diet and that brought about storms of protests as being authoritarian and being overly broad. Strange. That reminds me of a few other laws of Japan. The issue of collective security has been brought about into the forefront, as China and Japan’s confrontation near Okinawa has raised the stakes.

With the initial economic boost from the new fiscal policies adopted by the Abe Administration losing steam, there has been much discussion about how to prop up the Japanese economy that’s still very weak after the Great Recession. And then there is the utter mess of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant cleanup efforts and major lags in the reconstruction of Northeast Japan after the great earthquakes and tsunami.

In other words, revision to the Japanese Child Pornography Law did not have a chance to come up with so many things on the legislative agenda, but you can fully expect it to return next year. The new session of the Japanese Diet will start on Jan. 28th and last until June 26th. There is a very good chance something big will happen soon.

That’s all for now.