I had planned to write an end of year review, discussing the way this blog has covered East Asian affairs since its launch in the first half of 2004 and reviewing some important developments. But I was busier and lazier over the holidays than I had hoped and the new year came and went. I'll settle for some brief comments and move on to posting new stories.
Looking back, I'm quite pleased with what I wrote; less pleased at everything that I didn't cover. It should be no surprise to me that the coverage of Japan is in more depth and more knowledgeable than what I've written about other countries. Japan is the only country in the region that I've lived in. I think that is also part of the reason that I have written about domestic politics in Japan, whereas my coverage of other countries seems to look at them mainly from a 'foreign affairs' perspective. I want to improve on this in 2005, particularly for Hong Kong and South Korea, which I think I underreported last year.
Still, I have no plans to unsubscribe from the Japan Times daily news email, so there will probably continue to be lots of stories from there. If anyone knows of a similar email service for Korean, Hong Kong, Chinese, Russian Far-East or Taiwanese English language papers, please let me know.
