Japan and the Origins of the Asia-Pacific Order

Ryuji Hattori received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Kobe University in 1999. He also holds an M.A. in Law from Kyoto University and a Bachelor in Law from Kyoto University. He has been an associate professor at Takushoku University and was formerly a research assistant at Chiba University. He has also served as a member on the governmental committee of the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the Japan-China Joint History Research, and the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, the National Archives of Japan. His recent published books include China-Japan Rapprochement and the United States: In the Wake of Nixon’s Visit to Beijing (London: Routledge, 2022), Japan at War and Peace: Shidehara Kijūrō and the Making of Modern Diplomacy (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2021), Eisaku Sato, Japanese Prime Minister, 1964-72: Okinawa, Foreign Relations, Domestic Politics and the Nobel Prize (London: Routledge, 2021), UnderstandingHistory in Asia: What Diplomatic Documents Reveal (Tokyo: Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture 2019), to name but a few.Graham Leonard is a translator with a Ph.D. in International Public Policy from Osaka University in Japan and an M.A. in Japanese Studies from the University of Washington.

“Due to his extensive research and interviews, Hattori is able to skillfully bring out these interpersonal dynamics, which had an enormous impact on Japanese politics. … Hattori’s book, skillfully translated by the United States-based Dr Graham B Leonard, with whom this author has worked, should be at the top of the reading stack.” (Robert D. Eldridge, JAPAN Forward, japan-forward.com, July 30, 2022)

• Chapter 1. Distant Memories.- Chapter 2. The “Philosophy of the Ellipse”: Working for the Finance Ministry.- Chapter 3. Transition to the World of Politics: Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Ikeda Government.- Chapter 4. The Beginnings of Ōhira Diplomacy: Foreign Minister in the Ikeda Government.- Chapter 5. The “Total Settlement of the Postwar Era”: From LDP Deputy Secretary-General to Kōchikai Chairman.- Chapter 6. Chasing the Horizons of Diplomacy: Foreign Minister in the Tanaka Government.- Chapter 7. Internal and External Crises: Finance Minister under Tanaka and Miki, and LDP Secretary-General.- Chapter 8. Seeking a New Order Along the Pacific Rim: Ōhira as Prime Minister.