Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Postwar Political Machine

by Jacob M. Schlesinger

Overview

This is a vivid account of the corrupt and improbable political machine that ran Japanese politics for twenty years, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, the period during which Japan became the world's second-largest economy.

Reviews

"Washington lobbyists, Moscow mafiosi, and Beijing party bosses stand back! . . . Here is one of the longest running big-time political sleaze serials of the past quarter-century. . . . This was a book waiting to be written, and not only has Schlesinger done it, but he has also produced a fine job of political reporting."

—New York Times Book Review

"In a rollicking style, Schlesinger . . . demolishes the popular misconception that politicians are boring. His is a tale of monstrous personalities. . . . This is the most entertaining short history of Japanese politics this reviewer has encountered."

—The Economist

"A story which is told vividly in this well researched and reliable account. . . . A superb analysis of Japan's politics and economic affairs."

—Washington Post Book World

"Shadow Shoguns is a lively and anecdote-rich account of the eerie parallels between Tokyo's now-battered political machine and New York's Tammany Hall. . . . Schlesinger masterfully demonstrates why Prime Minister Tanaka personified the collusive ties between Japanese politicians and Big Business."

—Business Week

"A fascinating and penetrating tale about the Tanaka machine that dominated Japan's politics for several decades and whose demise in the early 1990s has created a political vacuum that accounts for many of Japan's current problems."

—Foreign Affairs

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804734578
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	05/28/1999
Edition description:	1
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jacob M. Schlesinger writes on economics for the Wall Street Journal; from 1989 to 1994, he reported on technology, trade, and Japanese politics from the Journal's Tokyo bureau.

Editorial Reviews

"Washington lobbyists, Moscow mafiosi, and Beijing party bosses stand back! . . . Here is one of the longest running big-time political sleaze serials of the past quarter-century. . . . This was a book waiting to be written, and not only has Schlesinger done it, but he has also produced a fine job of political reporting."—New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

"Washington lobbyists, Moscow mafiosi, and Beijing party bosses stand back! . . . Here is one of the longest running big-time political sleaze serials of the past quarter-century. . . . This was a book waiting to be written, and not only has Schlesinger done it, but he has also produced a fine job of political reporting."

New York Times Book Review

In this involving tale, Schlesinger, a Wall Street Journal correspondent in Tokyo from 1989 to 1994, makes the power plays inside Japan's government over the past 35 years so accessible that they will seem as familiar to American readers as their local politics. He offers humanizing biographies of the four figures who built and ran the country's powerful and corruptible political machine from 1970 onward, fueling the bubble boom of the '80s, then deliberately bursting it. Premier Kakuei Tanaka, the dominant force in his country's politics for more than a decade, rose to power with a populist appeal but with the support of the old ruling elite. He initiated liberalizing reforms and undertook vast public works that spurred the rise of the middle class while vastly profiting business cronies and, not least, himself. Brought down by these scandals, his successorsShin Kanemaru, Noboru Takeshita and Ichiro Ozawatutored by the master, carried on until the excesses stirred popular discontent and Ozawa took steps to end them, deflating the overvalued stock market and causing Japan's recent depression. This is an exceptionally lucid and gripping report on machine politics Eastern style. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This study, by a Wall Street Journal reporter who lived and worked in Japan from 1989 to 1994, offers a valuable perspective on Japanese politics in the postwar era and on the contemporary scene as well. The book's primary focus is the rise and fall of the powerful political machine created by Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese prime minister from 1972 to 1974. Although Tanaka fell from power as the result of a political scandal in 1976, his machine existed until the early 1990s, when it was overthrown in a reform movement led by Ichiro Ozawa, one of Tanaka's protgs and currently one of Japan's most powerful political figures. Schlesinger tells his story well, and the book can be generally recommended for all libraries.Scott K. Wright, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.

Library Journal

An American journalist's informed and eye-opening audit of Japan's de facto governance by unelected bosses during much of the postWW II era.

Drawing on five years of experience as a Tokyo-based correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, Schlesinger first outlines the history of the Liberal Democratic Party, which effectively ran the island nation from 1955 until 1993. At the heart of the LDP's story is Kakuei Tanaka, the sometime prime minister who gained influence the old-fashioned way, i.e., by purchasing it with cash, favors, and public works projects. The author devotes more than half his text to the roguish, pragmatic populist who, before coming to grief (over a bribe from Lockheed Aircraft), created a political machine that dominated the LDP and hence Japan. Tanaka and his faction wielded clout sufficient to pick compliant prime ministers, fill key cabinet posts, and determine budget priorities. After the founding father faded from the scene during the early 1980s, a troika of remarkably talented pols (Shin Kanemaru, Ichiro Ozawa, and Noboru Takeshita) took control of the Tanaka coalition. While the shadow shoguns were masters at attracting billions of yen in campaign contributions, they proved inept at selecting prime ministers able to stay the course. At length, the Cold War's end, the implosion of Japan's so- called bubble economy, Western pressures for more open trade practices, and a series of sordid scandals helped put paid to the Tanaka bloc's unchallenged dominion. The days of the backroom power brokers are over, albeit with consequences that have yet to be reckoned with either in the archipelago or the wider world.

An astute, accessible, and absorbing analysis of an insular nation's arrogant and corrupt political heritage.

Kirkus Reviews