Japan's Kissinger? Yachi Shōtarō: The State Behind the Curtain

This article reassesses the 2006 and, tentatively, the 2014 reset in Sino- Japanese relations to argue in favour of an increasingly state-centric understanding of Japanese diplomacy. By making use of a narrative account and a variety of primary sources-including personal memoirs, elite interviews, participatory observation, and leaked State Department cables-this article finds that Abe Shinzō's foreign policy confidante, Yachi Shōtarō, embodied the unmatched influence of government actors in Japan's political landscape. The article provides a close-up portrait of Yachi, with an emphasis on his preference for geopolitics, strategy, and secret diplomacy. Yachi and the institutional apparatus he represented sought détente with Japan's main strategic adversary, while pushing for geopolitical initiatives that targeted China. The article concludes by arguing that the Abe administration's insistence on, and institutionalized practice of, conducting public affairs in secret will likely further strengthen the role of the nation-state and of government actors in Japan, also in light of growing geopolitical tensions in East Asia.