G8 for Mr. Aso

Our good souridaijin (Prime Minister) Asou Tarou (T.Aso) is off at the Group of Eight summit, and has brought a fairly full bag with him.

First up on his list is the matter of Land Tenancy in the developing world. He thought that was important enough to have written an Op-Ed piece for the Financial Times on the issues there. It *is* an important issue, and this author hopes the matter gains some traction in the discussions.

Today, he got to get some time on the sidelines with Russian President D. Medvedev on the Northern Territories issue. Sadly, the results seem to have been "no developments" (source in Japanese).

There are some reasons for offense to be taken, given the previous agreements to make progress on this matter, but...

...perhaps the Russian side will claim incapacity on their leader's part as justification.

Yes, I'm being unkind to President Medvedev. I'd like to think deservedly so.