• Puff peace: Two hundred smokers, including celebrities, gather to defend smokers' rights at a 'Symposium on Behalf of Heavy Smokers' held at a Tokyo hotel on April 1, 1985, the day that the Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corp. monopoly became Japan Tobacco Inc. JT is a well-known post-retirement amakudari destination for Finance Ministry bureaucrats. | KYODO
    Puff peace: Two hundred smokers, including celebrities, gather to defend smokers' rights at a "Symposium on Behalf of Heavy Smokers" held at a Tokyo hotel on April 1, 1985, the day that the Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corp. monopoly became Japan Tobacco Inc. JT is a well-known post-retirement amakudari destination for Finance Ministry bureaucrats. | KYODO
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An American prosecutor once told me this joke:

Three elite government officials become friends on the conference circuit. One is from a developed Western nation, another from a developing nation, the last from a Third World basket case. When a conference is held in the developed nation, that official hosts a dinner at his home, a fine three-story house in a prestigious neighborhood with a four-car garage and an outdoor pool.

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