I put out a Google Alert for political commentator Minoru Morita a few weeks back because Chin Music is doing a lot of translations for his think tank. The links that come back are like a quick summary of Japanese political news. He's quoted in the FT about Mr. Kyuma's resignation, in the Times of London about the pension scandal, and by Bloomberg in a story on Alberto Fujimori's bid to win a seat in the upper house election. And that's just in the last few days.

Which begs a question: Why can't a political commentator so widely quoted in the international press even get his latest book reviewed by a major media organization in Japan? The book is a fiery attack on Abe, Koizumi and the LDP-Komeito coalition entited "Amerika ni Tsukaisuterareru Nihon" (loosely translated as Japan: Used and Discarded by America). The folks at the Morita Research Institute, where our translations appear each week, tell us that only one newspaper(Nara Shimbun) and one magazine (Nikkan Gendai) have bothered to review it.

Morita has published more than 30 books on politics. It's pretty clear he's being blackballed. Let's hope foreign corrrespondents keep going to him for quotes and people keep buying his book. Media monoliths here and in Japan have just one Achilles' heel that we small publishers have to exploit: They don't connect with readers on any level. They have loads of cash, but their product leaves people semi-informed and semi-distrustful no matter how hard they try to spin it.