Gaiko no Chikara (The Power of Diplomacy)

Abstract

I probably do not need to introduce Tanaka Hitoshi, the author of this book, because he is one of the most well-known and controversial Japanese high-level foreign officials today. His role during the period of Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro attracted particular attention from the mass media and the general Japanese public. He had been a key diplomat in a number of issues until he resigned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2005. In particular, he is known to have been an architect of Japanese diplomacy toward North Korea since 2001. His efforts to settle various issues with regard to North Korea were both innovative and contentious. So-called ‘summit diplomacy’, best represented by Prime Minister Koizumi's surprise visits to Pyongyang in 2002, marked a new Japanese foreign policy in a sense that Japanese leaders sought and conducted an independent foreign policy, distinct from that of the George W. Bush administration. At the same time, Tanaka's diplomatic approach to North Korean issues has been controversial and sometimes even criticized as ‘secret diplomacy’, particularly regarding the problem of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea. However, Tanaka's involvement in foreign policy goes beyond North Korean issues. He played an important role in such issues as the settlement of economic and trade disputes between the US and Japan in the late 1980s, the reconstruction of the US–Japan alliance in the post-Cold War period and so on. Consequently, it is both intellectually intriguing and historically important to see what Tanaka says in his book. In this review, however, I do not aim to list all of Tanaka's achievements, nor the criticisms leveled against him; rather, I want to focus on a few academically valuable points.