Fencing in the Dark

Sino-Japanese relations were seriously rattled in September 2010 when a Chinese fishing boat rammed a Japanese Coast Guard patrol ship in Japanese waters off the Senkaku Islands. This was compounded in April 2012 when Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro announced that he planned to buy the islands and added, “if this means war with China, so be it.” Alarmed at the prospect of Ishihara owning the islands, Democratic Party of Japan prime minister Noda Yoshihiko moved to see if there was some way the government could buy them instead, even knowing this would be seen as nationalization. Top officials in foreign policy, defense, and other areas met at Kantei (officially the Prime Minister’s Official Residence, but actually his offices) to find an out that would pre-empt Ishihara without provoking China (which also claimed the islands). This book tells the gripping story of what happened and why.

SUNOHARA Tsuyoshi
Sunohara Tsuyoshi was born in Tokyo in 1961. He started working for the Nihon Keizai (Nikkei) Shimbun in 1983 after graduation from Sophia University (Faculty of Economics, Business Administration program). At Nikkei, he worked on the business desk, the Washington Bureau, the political bureau, and the international bureau. He has served as a fellow in the Columbia University School of Journalism’s Advanced Global Reporting program, a visiting scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and visiting researcher at the Henry L. Stimson Center, among other distinctions. Back at the Nikkei, he was appointed global business managing executive officer in 2016 and senior managing executive officer in 2019, serving concurrently as professor by special appointment at Sophia University. He has served as chief operating officer for the Mt. Fuji Dialogue to promote intellectual exchange between Japan and the United States since 2014. Among his many publications from Shinchosha are: Zainichi Beigun shireibu (United States Forces command headquarters in Japan, 2008); Beichu hyakunen senso: Shin reisen kozo to Nihon no meiun (The Sino-US hundred years’ war: Japan’s fate in the new cold war structure, 2012); Kaku ga nakunaranai nanatsu no riyu (Seven reasons the world does not go nuclear free, 2010); Zero no idenshi: 21 seiki no “Hinomaru sentoki” to nihon no kokubo (The Zero gene: Japan’s quest for a domestic-built fighter plane and national defense policy, 2012).

*information as of time of publication

JIIA series
History

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥2,700 + tax
ISBN 9784866581156
220 mm x 148 mm / 312 pp. / February 2020

eBook
ISBN 9784866581217 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866581187 (PDF)
March 2020

Introduction to the English Edition / 1. Strained to the Breaking Point / 2. The Bombshell Announcement / 3. Clandestine Operations / 4. The Summit Meeting / 5. The Final Decision / 6. Breakout of the Political Battle / Postscript / Reflections: Was Nationalizing the Senkaku Islands the Right Choice?

2010年9月、尖閣諸島沖での中国漁船衝突事件以来、混乱する日中関係。2012年4月、石原都知事による「尖閣購入」を宣言。知事の「中国と戦争になっても構わない」発言に、野田内閣は尖閣国有化を決意する。日本の安全保障問題を問う緊迫のドキュメント。

春原 剛
1961（昭和36）年東京都生まれ。上智大学卒業後、日本経済新聞社入社。ワシントン支局勤務などを経て編集局長付編集委員。上智大学グローバル教育センター客員教授、日本経済研究センター・日米プロジェクト（富士山会合）事務総長。著書に『暗闘　尖閣国有化』など。

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