Japan’s intelligence capabilities with Professor Richard J Samuels, Professor Kotani Ken and Hosaka Sanshiro

Japan Memo

Robert Ward hosts Richard J Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kotani Ken, Professor at Nihon University in Japan, and Hosaka Sanshiro, Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security and PhD student at the University of Tartu.

Robert, Richard, Ken and Sanshiro discuss: 

• The history of Japanese intelligence agencies
• Japan’s current intelligence capabilities
• Intelligence threats faced by Japan and the West
• Outlook of intelligence operations

The following books are recommended by our guests to gain a clearer picture of the topics discussed: 

Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Exodus to North Korea: Shadows from Japan's Cold War, (Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007), 302pp.

John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000), 688pp.

Kotani Ken, 日本インテリジェンス史：旧日本軍から公安、内調、ＮＳＣまで [Nihon Intelligence Shi: Kyu-nihongun Kara Kōan, Naichō, NSC Made], (Tokyo: Chuo Koron Shinsha, 2022), 296pp.

Michael S. Molasky, 呑めば、都─居酒屋の東京 [Nomeba Miyako – Izakaya No Tokyo], (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 2016), 400pp.

Richard J. Samuels, Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2019), 384pp.

We hope you enjoy the episode and please follow, rate, and subscribe to Japan Memo on your podcast platform of choice. If you have any comments or questions, please contact us at [e-mail].

Date recorded: 21 June 2024 

Japan Memo is recorded and produced at the IISS in London. 

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