Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2021. xv, 278 pp. (Tables, graphs, figures.) US$35.00, paper. ISBN 9781647120641.
As the wave of interest in Japan continues to surge due to the country’s emergence as a more prominent actor on the international stage, academics have started to systematically close the gaps in our knowledge of this supposedly “inscrutable” country. New books on all aspects of Japanese foreign, security, and defense policies have begun to proliferate in recent years to the great benefit of the international relations (IR) and Japan studies communities. In this respect, Brad Williams does his part in advancing our knowledge of the national intelligence community of modern (postwar) Japan.
Williams’s stated ambition is to build on earlier accounts of Japan’s intelligence apparatus by situating it in the burgeoning debates occurring around the country’s “grand strategy.” Particularly pertinent to these is the author’s inclusion of both economic and politico-military fields of intelligence given the increasing symbiosis of these fields under the umbrella of “economic security,” an area where contemporary Japan is a leader (195). As he testifies: “Few have sought to locate Japanese foreign economic intelligence capability explicitly within the framework of the country’s postwar national security strategy and its embodied norms” (14). By tapping into the constructivist research tradition of IR, Williams identifies these co-existing norms or “multiple identities” (15) as bilateralism, developmentalism, technonationalism, and antimilitarism, and he applies these as an analytical device throughout the narrative that follows.
The book is organized into six chapters bracketed by an introduction and conclusion. The introduction plunges directly into a complex outline of Japan’s intelligence institutional framework, including organizational tables—a handy point of reference throughout. The first chapter sets the context for the account which follows through an exposition of the “norms” (indicated above) from the Yoshida to the Abe doctrines, which serve throughout as the book’s guiding analytical framework. The subsequent five chapters are a well-crafted compound of (not strictly chronological) historical narrative and thematic focus surveying Japan’s foreign intelligence journey to the present. The conclusion is more of a short summary, while evaluations and glimpses into “what’s next” for the Japanese intelligence community appear at the end of chapter 6.
From amongst this comprehensive survey of the manipulative world of intelligence operations, there are many interesting vignettes that serve to texture the structured analysis. Amongst these, I found the inevitable recourse to all manner of shady intelligence assets of the former wartime militarist regime in the early Cold War period particularly intriguing (chapter 2). Likewise, the detailed account of the methods deployed by Japan during its heyday to collect economic intelligence for both commercial (developmental) and technonationalist reasons against its US ally—Japan as the “friendly spy”—especially illuminating, including some real blunders (chapter 4). Indeed, the book is rich in fascinating anecdotes that keep the reader engaged. Though the book centres around the pivotal US-Japan alliance (per the norm of bilateralism), it could have possibly expanded upon occasional reference to intelligence cooperation with other like-minded states, such as Australia and the UK, whose overall security relations have made enormous strides in recent years and also involve forms of “information-sharing.” (215) Turning attention to Japan’s other security partnerships, even if intelligence links presently remain embryonic, could be a fruitful future research agenda to flesh out the picture.
The book is based upon meticulous research anchored in deep expertise and enlivened by the author’s clear passion for the subject matter. It is a superb contribution to the specific literature on Japanese intelligence (and intelligence studies in general), but more broadly informative on all matters of Japanese grand strategy. Of course, the book will be invariably compared to Richard Samuel’s 2019 volume Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community, and while both treat with very similar subject matter, there are some important differences. The temporal scope of Williams’ book is narrower (post-war to the Abe period), whilst Samuel’s much longer work goes back to the Meiji era. Cognizant of this preceding work, Williams’ own volume is distinguished by its explicit connection of intelligence with grand strategy, its new insights on economic factors, and incorporation of constructivist conceptual framework, which he expertly weaves into his account. The complimentary nature of these two works ensures an essential place for both on the bookshelf of any discerning Japan scholar.
Thomas Wilkins
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Minato