Kokubo (National Defence)

Shinchosha, January 2005, 254 pages, ¥ 1300. ISBN-13: 978 – 4104737017

Review by Fumiko Halloran

Shigeru Ishiba, the fourth minister of a newly upgraded Ministry of Defence (from the former National Defence Agency), argues that US-Japan defence relations now require Japan to be more active. Japan in the past was passive and complacent, earning as a nickname for the National Defence Agency a shopping agency that paid the bills for jet fighters and weaponry but did little strategic thinking. He does not advocate revision of the constitution to permit Japanese forces to participate in collective security but rather a comprehensive review of present arrangements, including reducing Japan’s share of the cost of maintaining American military bases in Japan. At the same time, he would seek to preserve the capability to deter enemy threats.

Shigeru Ishiba was born twelve years after the war. Although his father was Governor of Tottori Prefecture, Ishiba showed little interest in politics, graduating from Keio and joining a bank. When his father died, Ishiba was 25. Former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, a king maker, summoned Ishiba and persuaded him to run for the House of Representatives in a Tottori district. He campaigned on domestic economic issues and won. In the next election, Ishiba supported a rise in consumer taxes, which was unpopular and fostered predictions that he would lose. Even so, Ishiba won with the top vote, which persuaded him to tell the voters what he believed, not what he thought would make him win.

Ishiba became aware of international issues when he visited Kurdish refugee camps along the border of Iran and Iraq after the first Gulf War. He says that for the first time he realized the treacherous consequences of international conflicts. Added to that was his visit to North Korea with other parliamentarians to celebrate the 80th birthday of the North Korean leader, Kim Il-sung. Ishiba was shocked by the abnormality of its political system. Even though he served on LDP committees on agriculture and transport to consolidate his domestic political base, Ishiba kept up his interest in foreign policy and national defence and served as the Defence Minister in the Fukuda cabinet until July 2008.

A different and much shorter version of this collection of reviews first appeared on the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) Japan-U.S. Discussion Forum and is reproduced with permission.