Tanaka: The Making of Postwar Japan

Tanaka is indisputably "the most important Japanese politician of the late twentieth century". A populist politician from a very humble background in a poor part of the country, he had a popular appeal for the Japanese masses that was unsurpassed by rival and better-connected politicians. More importantly still, he helped shape the political climate of modern Japan, particularly in terms of his corruption and sinister connections with business and organized crime. He does in that sense, encapsulate an era. His career both as an embodiment of his times but also as a shaper of them illuminates the peculiar character of Japanese politics in his time. Tanakathe new title in the Profiles in Powerseries, is not a biography, though inevitably it contains much biographical material, it instead analyzes the major features, achievements and failures of Tanaka's career.

James Babb is Lecturer in Japanese Politics at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne