Issue 16 (September 2008, Volume 3, Number 4)

It seems that in Japan changing prime minister every September is rapidly becoming a seasonal fixture, a trend no doubt Gordon Brown is hoping doesn’t spread to the UK.

To mark the beginning of Taro Aso’s premiership we are reviewing his recent book (Totetsu Mo Nai Nippon) along with those of four of his rivals and potential future prime ministers. These books represent a recent trend for would-be pretenders to the political throne of publishing a book before they stake their claim to the crown. With the average life-span of recent prime ministers at just one year, it certainly pays to be prepared.

We reviewed former PM Abe’s book (Utsukushii Kuni E) in August 2007 (Issue 10, Vol. 2 No.4), just a month before his September resignation. Some of the many fascinating facts to come out of this current batch of books are the unexpected links which bind some of the candidates in this September’s race for the premiership. For example both Kaoru Yosano and Yuriko Koike were students in Cairo while both Aso and Yosano are Catholics. Japanese politicians are certainly becoming more diverse and the fact that Yuriko Koike became the first woman to stand in the contest to become PM is also a significant milestone.

Away from Japanese politics Mikihiro Maeda reviews a popular new Japanese book on Burma while Sir Hugh Cortazzi looks at a work on the diplomat, scholar and Japanologist Ernest Satow.

We also preview a new publication on the 1858 Treaty of Yedo, which established diplomatic ties between the United Kingdom and Japan. This book also forms part of the celebrations to mark the 150th year of Anglo-Japanese diplomatic ties.