Issue:
After the “Arab Spring” turns out to be a false democratic transition, Arabs hit the streets again demanding the return of the former regimes! Mubarak of Egypt, who is over 80, is said to be dyeing his hair again.
Fadi Salameh, Al Jazeera
The Japanese will get so fed up with one year prime ministers that Fanuc will invent a robot prime minister that resembles Junichiro Koizumi, including the Lion King hairdo, but with an unlimited battery life.
Martin Fackler, the New York Times
The world will not end in 2013 because it already ended on December 21st, 2012.
Benjamin Fulford
The Rupert Murdoch of Japan, Tsuneo Watanabe, will either "step down" as Editor in Chief of the Yomiuri Shimbun or be forced out. The Yomiuri won't change very much.
Jake Adelstein, The Atlantic Wire
Barring the discovery of life on a distant planet or a collision with an asteroid, 2013 will bring more of the same shit that’s been going on for centuries.
Richard Pyle, former AP Asia news editor
Team Japan will win a 3rd consecutive World Baseball Classic title, maintaining its status as the only country to win the WBC since its inception in
Wayne Graczyk
After the LDP wins, it surprises pundits by joining TPP, but reconnects with its base with a plan for concrete bridges linking the five Senkaku Islands.
Rick Wallace, The Australian
Shintaro Ishihara will die and Toru Hashimoto will fall to scandal, blowing Nippon Ishin no Kai apart. Party survivors, led by Taiichi Sakaiya, old Reagan/Thatcherites, and young management consultants will roam the wastelands of south Osaka and journey through the void of Japanese television talent agencies, seeking a new Messiah.
Eric Johnston, The Japan Times
2013 will not be complete without yet another change of Japanese prime minister!
Kwan Weng Kin, The Straits Times Press
Ludwig Erhard, the first West German Minister for economy after the war, once said that psychology makes at least 50 percent of the economy. The structural pessimism in this country more and more becomes a serious problem for Japan's economic growth. In 2013, the primary task of the prime minister will be to raise confidence. Carstem Germis, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
A political swing to the right and another short lived govt. led by Shinzo Abe, who will ban Chinese restaurants, say that Japan “liberated” Nanjing in 1937 and recommend Emperor Hirohito for a posthumous Nobel peace prize before retiring to a country house with lots of
David McNeill
I predict that efforts to legalize pot smoking will sweep the world in 2013, as people realize the war on drugs is unwinnable.
Henry Tricks, The Economist
Toyota Motor Corp. will sell more than 10 million vehicles worldwide, becoming the first automaker to pass the 10 million milestone and setting a new standard for success in an increasingly globalized industry in which mega volume players are king and niche players struggle for survival.
Hans Greimel, Automotive News
One sure fire prediction is that more cases of scientific misconduct will come to light. In 2012, one Japanese researcher set a worldwide record for retracting scientific reports because of fabrications and another admitted in front of TV cameras that he had lied about developing a new medical therapy. 2013 promises more of the same.
Dennis Normile, Science
Prosecutors and police will continue to get away with the existing, flawed criminal justice system, in which they enjoy more power than their counterparts in other democracies. The last national election was the first after a series of major false charge incidents and revelations of illegal criminal investigations, yet no political party called for reform. The biggest winners were the prosecutors and police.
Tetsuo Jimbo, Video News Network
Sino-Japan relations dramatically improve after the new prime minister and his new coalition government take power. The ultra conservative prime minister unexpectedly chooses a realistic approach toward China and avoids visiting the war shrine. China softens its attitude and bilateral cooperation resumes.
Yosuke Watanabe, Kyodo News
In the aftermath of the USA military generals’ ordeal, the 2013 FCCJ regulations result in convicting me for gender harassment, for in my e-mail communications with gentle women, I routinely use three four letter words: starting with "Dear," followed by the lady’s first name, and ending with “Love & Hugs.”
Edwin Karmiol
The unstable planet’s situation will continue to bring more natural shake ups (that some call “disasters”); the Yen will have 10 percent less resistance to gravity, three heads of monarch states and dictatorships will fall for one reason or another and the limited war in the Middle East and the “Arab Spring” will spread. Oh yes, and big changes at the FCCJ will have a serious impact.
Khaldon Azhari, PanOrient News
. . . AND BACKBITING AT THE CLUB
Kim Jong Un proves to be no reformer. Georges Baumgartner declines to run for another term as president at FCCJ after answering summons to replace Kim in Pyongyang and outsource the DPRK government to Mali.
Bradley Martin
I see the demise of the FCCJ as a social club through delusion, untruth, nnnnnnn, arrogance and No. 1 Shimbun censorship.
Karel Van Wolferen
In 2013, I predict all FCCJ General Membership Meetings will be rancorous, and that the initial under salting by our new cooks later over compensated by excessive salting will hit a happy medium. Also, the Club will become a favorite hangout for lawyers.
Charles Pomeroy
Conventional prediction no longer works in Japan, where events which elsewhere in the world would be transforming seem to come and go without bringing any fundamental change. So: in 2013, Japan will continue to sleep an uneasy, dream-filled sleep, waiting for the person or surprise which will one day wake it up.
Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times
