Totetsu Mo Nai Nippon (Extraordinary Japan)

Shincho Shinsho, June 2007, 190 pages. Price: ¥ 680. ISBN-13: 978 – 4106102172

Review by Fumiko Halloran

Taro Aso believes Japanese leaders have become more effective in communicating with U.S. officials. He says Japanese should be articulate in describing their understanding of a situation, their intention to solve problems, and should negotiate in a straightforward way with Americans. He argues that the two countries share universal values (普遍的価値) and strategic interests (戦略的利益). It is inevitable, in his view, that Russia and China should try to break up this alliance that dominates the world economy (40% of world GDP) because that would serve their national interests.

Taro Aso comes from a prominent family. His mother was a daughter of Shigeru Yoshida, the four-time prime minister who led Japan’s post-war recovery. Several of his disciples were students of the Yoshida school and later became prime ministers. Aso’s paternal great grandfather, Takichi Aso, built an industrial empire in Kyushu before World War II in coal mining, railways, navigation, electric power and hospitals. The family fortune dwindled, however, as the coal business collapsed after the war.

Aso, born in 1940, graduated from Gakushuin University, studied at Stanford University and the London School of Economics, and joined his father’s company. In 1979, he got elected to the House of Representatives as an LDP candidate from his Fukuoka district. Since then, he has been re-elected nine times and has served as Director General of the Economic Planning Agency, Special Minister of Economic Policy and Foreign Minister, as well as head of the LDP Policy & Research Council. In a cabinet reshuffle in July 2008, Prime Minister Fukuda appointed Aso as LDP Secretary General.