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.

• 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.

“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)