Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Postwar Political Machine by Jacob Schlesinger - 9780804734578 - Compare Prices on New & Used Textbooks, Cheap Textbooks

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

		Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Postwar Political Machine by Jacob Schlesinger ISBN-10: 9780804734578 ISBN-10: 0-8047-3457-7 ISBN-13: 9780804734578 ISBN-13: 978-0-8047-3457-8 Paperback 1999-05-01 Stanford University Press Find Lowest Price
Editorials

Product Description 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
Amazon.com Review Jacob M. Schlesinger's Shadow Shoguns is an arresting profile of an element of modern Japanese life little understood in the West: the relationship between economic superpowerdom and political corruption. In an astute and provocative piece of political reporting, Schlesinger, formerly of the Wall Street Journal's Tokyo bureau, paints a vivid portrait of state as corporation. This "Japan Inc." is a nation that has subverted democratic ideals to Capitalist opportunities, a country ruled by "shadow shoguns"--corrupt officials who have created a political machine for their personal profit. Schlesinger begins his tale with Kakuei Tanaka, a poor country boy who clawed his way through the construction business into politics and up through the ranks to become prime minister. This rags-to-riches story illustrates two points: the personal tenacity and ruthlessness of Tanaka and the fierce divisions between "Front" Japan--the glittering, urban economic miracle the country presents to the world--and "Back" Japan, the underdeveloped rural world from which Tanaka rose. In many ways, the story of Tanaka is the story of modern Japan, a nation in which government corruption was tolerated in the interests of continuing economic growth. The past few years have seen both the bursting of Japan's economic bubble and the exposure of repeated government scandals. For anyone who has watched and wondered at the state of Japanese politics, Jacob M. Schlesinger's Shadow Shoguns offers a cogent explanation of how business, bureaucracy, and politics made such unholy bedfellows.
Reviews

Excellent portrayal of the Tanaka political machine For anyone who has lived in Japan, there are way way too many books that attempt to explain away what we witnessed as severe problems via complex cultural blah-blah about the "Japanese exception." The great value of this book is to explain the corruption and autocratic impulses as the product of a rather straightforward politican machine - there is nothing exceptional that offers anything of intrinsic value beyond understanding it for what it was: just a moment in time that a corrupt leader, Tanaka, was able to create a seat for himself at the center of power. As Schlesinger argues, with all that power, the great failure of Tanaka was that he did so little with it in terms of serving the public interest: instead, it just served him and his cronies. As such, now that the machine has been watered down, many needed reforms are far more difficult to implement (and the need for remedies, after decades of neglect, is worse than ever). This is the product of a truly intelligent and thoughtful journalist. I knew him briefly in Japan, and was always impressed with his clear sightedness and willingness to question anything, in addition to his humor. It is a great pleasure to read this book and recognise the original mind that I knew. Warmly recommended.
Politics is power. Power is numbers. This is a far better book than the more theoretical approach by Karel van Wolferen in 'The Enigma of Japanese Power'. After reading this book there is no enigma anymore. Jacob M. Schlesinger reveals extremely clearly how the Japanese system worked and who pulled the strings. He shows that Japanese politics in the last half of the 20th century was firmly controlled by four men, with Kakuei Tanaka as the most predominant tycoon. Tanaka's tactics were very simple: use his home base as a platform for his political career by lavishy spending state money in his election district and by buying votes; use his financial clout to control the Japanese majority party; become still richer by corrupting the state bureaucracy, bid-rigging (200 % and more margin) and briberies (by private companies). In fact, the author shows clearly that the whole system was controlled by a corrupt oligachy. The men in power were not afraid of racket type interventions. One example: the ruling government proposed stiff taxes on automobiles. After the automobile industry paid heavy contributions to the party in charge, the bill was watered down. This book is an exemplary analysis of a corrupt political system. Not to be missed.
The Hidden Power Behind Japan's Political System Why has Japan changed its prime ministers with such frequency through much of the post-war period? Why did those prime ministers seem powerless to affect real change to the political system? "Shadow Shoguns" answers these questions by way of a brilliantly told story of the Liberal Democratic Party's most powerful political faction called the "gundan". The story of the "gundan" - which means "army corps" -- is primarily the story of the man who created and ruled over it for much of the 70s and 80s, Kakuei Tanaka. Jacob Schlesinger spends more than half of "Shadow Shoguns" examining Tanaka's life, including his roots in the construction business, his entry into politics, how he made money work for him in consolidating political power, and finally, his fall from power. Tanaka was a fascinating figure. In many ways he was a combination of LBJ and Boss Tweed. His appetite for power and money was huge, and his experience in the construction industry gave him the ability to amass both. Coming from one of the poorest prefectures in Japan, he fought hard to bring huge pork barrel construction projects back to his constituents, and they in turn gave him unflinching support even when he was charged with crimes and became a national symbol of corruption. A scandal removed Tanaka from the prime minister's seat in 1974, but due to his constituents' support, it did not remove him from the parliament. From then until the mid-80s, Tanaka would be the power behind the throne, using money from construction projects to strengthen his faction, and his faction to strengthen his hold over national politics. What finally removed Tanaka from his position as leader over Japan's most powerful faction was not angry voters, other factions or their political leaders, but his own underlings. Tanaka had attracted some of the most talented politicians in Japan to his faction, and handling those egos was a full-time job. After a stroke in 1985, Tanaka was unable to reassert his power, and three of his protégés (Shin Kanemaru, Noburu Takeshita, and Ichiro Ozawa) wrenched the faction away from him. The final third of the book focuses on those protégés, their strengthening of the faction, and finally the fall of their machine as Japan's economy began to flounder. As Schlesinger tells it, the success of the faction was always predicated on continued strong economic growth. When the Japanese economy faltered throughout the early 1990s, so did the mechanism by which the "gundan" governed Japan. This is a book that gives vivid life to a political system and to politicians many people find boring. Schlesinger shows that because Japan's most capable and interesting politicians operated out of the limelight for much of the last three decades, their story is a compelling one as well as the key to understanding the history of the modern Japanese political system.
The Land of the Rising Bribe Concise and well written, it opens up postwar Japanese politics. Incredulous happenings! Maybe we should send some of our congressmen to Japan to check this out.-- Short shrift is given, however, to the all-pervading involvement with, and use of, the criminal organisations where the police seem powerless. Also, it should have photographs of the main actors to make it more three-dimensional.