The Asia Times published a review of The Iconoclast on 20 August, the first review: In short, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister is worthy of a biography. And Tobias Harris of the US-based advisory firm Teneo, whose close-up view of Japanese politics had an early boost in 2006-7 when he worked for a Japanese legislator, has …
Author: Tobias S. Harris
Tobias Harris is Japan analyst at Teneo Intelligence. He is the author of a forthcoming biography of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe resigns! (links)
While I was prepared for the possibility that Abe could resign after he visited the hospital twice in eight days, the rumor mill had swung away from talk of resignation mid-week. When I went to sleep Thursday night, I planned on waking up to watch his press conference that would start at 4:00am EDT but …
Off to the presses!
After several weeks of finalizing the book - collecting blurbs, reviewing the index, writing captions for the photo sections, and submitting final corrections to the text - Hurst has sent The Iconoclast to the press ahead of publication in the United Kingdom and other international markets in late August. It's not too late to preorder …
Interview on Monocle24 Radio’s “The Foreign Desk”
I recently spoke with Andrew Mueller of Monocle24 Radio's "The Foreign Desk" program for an episode that aired on 25 July 2020 focused on Abe Shinzō and his legacy. Mueller had read an advanced version of The Iconoclast and his questions gave me an opportunity to discuss some of my main arguments. It works well …
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“Japan in 2020: A Look at the Year Ahead,” panel at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 24 January 2020
On 24 January, I was invited to participate in "Japan in 2020," the latest iteration of an annual event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and sponsored by the Japan America Society of Washington.Now, little more than two months later, this discussion - on a domestic politics panel with CFR's Sheila Smith and …
Recent comments on Covid-19
For the past two months, my analytical coverage for Teneo Intelligence has been exclusively focused on the Covid-19 outbreak in Japan and the Koreas. Comments, often drawn from my research notes, have appeared in the following news articles: Motoko Rich and Ben Dooley, "What to Call 2021 Olympics? Just One of Many Challenges for Japan," …
My Year in Reading, 2019
Inspired by the “A Year in Reading” essays published by The Millions, I have written by own “Year in Reading.” Having spent most of 2019 writing my forthcoming biography of Abe Shinzō, I spent a significant portion of my year reading books in Japanese and English on Abe, Japanese politics, and East Asia. To my …
“China’s Rise and the U.S.-Japan Alliance” at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (11/4/19)
I was invited to participate in a panel at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on 4 November 2019, where I was able to engage in a lively discussion with Professor Kawashima Shina from Tokyo University, Carnegie's Evan Feigenbaum, and Dina Smeltz from the Chicago Council. https://youtu.be/A9CC3ZO8auQ?t=4252 The symposium also featured excellent commentary from Kato …
Upper House elections commentary
I was quoted in several articles on Japan's 21 July 2019 upper house elections: Sophie Jackman and Isabel Reynolds, "Japan's Abe Falls Short of Supermajority in Election Win," Bloomberg, 21 July 2019AFP, "Japan's Abe keeps upper house grip but no 'supermajority'"Grace Shao, "After elections, Japan’s leader Abe will be seeking a big win on trade," …
“Japan’s Upper House Election Results,” Sasakawa USA
On Monday, 22 July 2019, Washington College's Andrew Oros and I discussed the outcome of the upper house elections held the previous day, speaking to - much to my surprise - a packed room. Photo courtesy of Ben Self Our discussion dissected the significance of the results for Prime Minister Abe, Japan's political parties, and …
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Tobias S. Harris 