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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Sato Masaru is a name virtually unknown outside Japan (recognized by Google and Wikipedia's English language search engines only through footnotes from earlier texts by this author) but inescapable within Japan. He may indeed be the most prolific and widely read Japanese intellectual of the early 21st century. This short essay introduces Sato's writings, suggesting they form a useful prism through which to observe contemporary Japan.
1 For the Wikipedia bio-note on Sato (佐藤優) go here.
2 Wada Haruki, “Teruabibu kokusai kaigi to Sato Masaru shi ni tsuite,” Sekai, July 2002, pp. 196-199.
3 Sato Masaru, Kokka no wana - gaimusho no Rasuputin to yobarete, Shinchosha, 2005.
4 Kyodo, “Bid-fixing diplomat's suspended term stands in Suzuki-linked isle scheming,” Japan Times, 3 July 2009.
5 Togo Kazuhiko, testifying to the Diet Committee in 2010 on his role as head of the Treaty Bureau in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1998-99, “Mitsuyaku bunsho haki - kokumin to rekishi e no hainin da,” Tokyo shimbun, 20 March 2010. See also Togo's discussion with Sato Masaru in “Gaimu kanryo ni damasareru Okada gaisho,” Shukan kinyobi, 26 March 2010, pp. 14-17.
6 “State told to come clean on Okinawa,” Asahi shimbun, 10 April 2010; Masami Ito, “Court: Disclose Okinawa papers,” Japan Times, 10 April 2010.
7 Sato Masaru, “Ozawa daihyo no ji-i de juyo ni naru shakai minshushugi no saihyoka,:” Shukan kinyobi, 9 November 2007, pp. 16-17. For further Sato reflections in same vein, see his “Sayoku to uyoku, hoshu to kakushin” in Ota Masahide and Sato Masaru, Tettei toron – Okinawa no mirai, Fuyo shobo shuppan, 2010, at pp. 16-18
8 Sato Masaru, “Minzoku no wana,” Sekai, December 2005, pp. 91-101, at p. 96.
9 Sato Masaru, “Tokushu Sekai daikyofu – Fashizumu ni taisuru bohatei o,” Shukan kinyobi, 17 October 2008, pp. 18-19.
10 Details in the Wikipedia bio-note, cit.
11 Sato supports Article 9, however, for the unusual reason that he fears its revision might lead to responsibility attaching to the emperor in the event of some future war, thereby compromising his authority. (“‘Aera’ ‘Shokun’ sayu ryoyoku no Sato Masaru hihan ni tsuite,” Gekkan Nihon, June 2007. Link)
12 Kim Gwang-sang, “‘Sato Masaru gensho’ hihan,” Impaction, No 160, November 2007, reproduced here.
13 “Sato Masaru hihan ronbun no hissha wa Iwanami shoten shain datta,” Shukan shincho, 6 December 2007.
14 For details, Kim Gwang-sang, “Shinchosha, Hayakawa Kiyoshi ‘Shukan shincho’ zen henshucho, Sato Masaru shi e no sosho teiki ni atatte,” 16 June 2009, link.
15 Glenn D. Hook and Gavan McCormack, Japan's Contested Constitution, London, Routledge, 2001
16 As of 2010, eleven Wada and four Yamaguchi texts are listed in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus index.
17 Yamaguchi Jiro, Tokyo shimbun, 2 May 2004.
18 Yamaguchi Jiro, “Kiro ni tatsu sengo seiji,” in Yamaguchi, ed, Seiji o kataru kotoba, Nanatsumori shokan, 2008, p. 56.
19 Abe Shinzo, Utsukushii kuni e, Shincho shinsho, 2006.
20 Wada in 1989, “Shokuminchi shihai no seisan o,” in Chosen seisaku no kaizen o motomeru kai, Teigen – Nihon no Chosen seisaku, Iwanami bukkuretto, March 1989, p. 19 (cited in Kim Gwang-sang, “Nihon wa ukeika shite iru no ka, shite iru to sureba dare ga susumete iru no ka,” 10 August 2009, link.
21 For the “Digital Archive” of the Fund, see Wada Haruki, “The Comfort Women, the Asian Women's Fund and the Digital Museum,” Japan Focus, 1 February 2008, link. The archive can be accessed in Japanese and English here.
22 Suzuki Yuko has been perhaps the most prominent figure associated with this view. See her “‘Kokumin kikin’ to wa nan datta no ka,” in 3 parts, Shukan shin shakai, 20 and 27 November and 4 December 2007.
23 Jeff Kingston, “Uneasy neighbors across the sea,” Japan Times, 23 August 2010.
24 House Resolution 121, 2007, link.
25 Onuma Yasuaki, Ianfu mondai wa nan datta no ka, Chuko shinsho, 2007; also Onuma Yasuaki with Hata Ikuhiko and Arai Shinichi, “Gekiron ‘Jugun ianfu’ okisari ni sareta shinjitsu,” Shokun, July 2007.
26 Yamaguchi Jiro, ed, Seiji o kataru kotoba, Nanatsumori shokan, 2008, p. 33.
27 Kato Norihiro, Haisengoron, Kodansha, 1997.
28 Takahashi Tetsuya, Sengo sekinin ron, Kodansha, 1999, pp. 197-8.
29 Yamaguchi, Seiji o kataru kotoba, p. 33.
30 Yamaguchi, ibid, p. 49.
31 Yamaguchi, ibid, p. 48.
32 As introduced in Aera on 24 July 2009: link.
33 Kang Sangjung, Aikoku no saho, Asahi shimbunsha, 2006.
34 See Kang Sangjung and Nakajima Takeshi, Nihon – konkyochi kara no toi, Mainichi shimbunsha, 2008, pp. 67-8, 105.
35 Kang Sangjung, “Aikoku no saho,” No 20, Aera, 31 December 2007-7 January 2008.
36 See discussion in Kim's “Kang Sangjung wa doko e mukatte iru no ka,” parts 1-14, 2009, part 3, 2-2.
37 Kang Sangjung, Uchida Yasuhiko, Zainichi kara no tegami, Ota shuppan, October 2003, p, 79 (quoted in Kim Gwang-sang, “Kang Sang jung ha doko e mukatte iru no ka,” part 2, August 2009).
38 Kim, ibid, part 3-1.
39 Kang and Nakajima, cit, p. 81-82. (quoted in Kim, “Kang Sangjung to Tennosei,” part 2-1 of “Kang Sang jung wa doko e mukatte iru no ka.”)
40 Sato Masaru, Nihon kokka no shinzui, Sankei shimbunsha, December 2009.
41 For my concept of Japan as American “client state,” see my Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, New York and London, Verso, 2007.
42 Yasuoka Okiharu, former Justice Minister and as of 2004 head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Constitutional Research Council, interviewed by Takahashi Tetsuya, “Kempo Gekiron (2) Jiminto,” Shukan kinyobi, 25 June 2004: pp. 14-17.
43 Aikoku no saho, 2003, p. 105.
44 See, for example, Wada's essays for the Korean daily Kyunghyang shinmun during 2010, especially that for 5 July 2010 where he chooses the 100th anniversary of imposition of colonial rule over Korea to single out the Showa emperor for praise for his role in shifting Japan onto a course for peace. Link.
45 Wada Haruki, “Kankoku heigo 100 nen to Nihon,” Sekai, April 2009, pp. 162-169.
46 Hatoyama Yukio, Shin kempo soan – songen aru Nihon o tsukuru, PHP, 2005, also in Hatoyama's home page.
47 See my “Community and Identity in Northeast Asia: 1930s and Today,” Japan Focus, 15 December 2004. Link.
48 For the book that was published in 20010 from this series: Ota Masahide and Sato Masaru, Tettei toron – Okinawa no mirai, Fuyo shobo shuppan, 2010.
49 Sato has told this story on a number of occasions. See, for example, “Shiso de kosuru shinjiyushugi,” in Yamaguchi Jiro, ed, Seiji o kataru kotoba, pp. 196-230, at p. 206-7; also the Sato-Ota dialogue, “Okinawa wa mirai o do ikiru ka,” Sekai, April 2010, 67-79, at p. 69.
50 See Sato's lecture on the 35th anniversary of Okinawa's reversion to Japan: “Ho-kaku koeta seiji toso hitsuyo, Sato Masaru shi Naha de koen,” Okinawa Times, 1 September 2007.
51 Kan Naoto seiken wa gaimu kanryo no hoi sareta jotai de hosoku shita, “Shukan kinyobi, 11 June 2010, pp. 14-17.
52 “Rekishi wa bunka toso no buki,” Heisei no Ryukyu shobun (1), Uchina hyoron, No 123, Ryukyu shimpo, 29 May 2010.
53 “Dogu ni sareta Sai On no Ryuka,” Heisei no Ryukyu shobun (2) Uchina hyoron, No 124, Ryukyu shimpo, 4 June 2010.
54 See, for example, the Sato-Ota discussion in the April 2010 issue of Sekai, cit.
55 Medoruma Shun, “”Sato Masaru no Uchina hyoron, “Parts 1 and 2, 27 June 2010, link.
56 See for example his “Shiso de kosuru shinjiyushugi,” pp. 209-210.
57 Sato Masaru, “Heisei no Ryukyu shobun,” sub-series of his “Uchina hyoron,” commencing in Ryukyu shimpo, 29 May 2010.
58 “‘Sato Masaru gensho’ ni taiko suru kyodo seimei,” 2 October 2010, link.
59 Kwon Heok-tae, “An Enquiry of Japanese Progressives,” Pressian, 27 February 2008, link, Japanese translation here. Kwon is a Japan specialist at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul, who has a doctorate from Hitotsubashi University and who taught at Yamaguchi University in Japan until 2000.
60 Kwon quotes Takahashi Tetsuya as authority for this view. Takahashi, it may be noted, is one Japanese intellectual that Kim was inclined, at least till very recently, to defend as “leftist,” i.e., beyond the confines of the emerging post left-right, national front. That seems to have now changed since Kim construes Takahashi's essay on “The debate on post-war responsibility as of 2010” (Takahashi Tetsuya, “2010 nen no sengo sekinin ron,” Sekai, January 2010, pp. 181-192), as signifying a shift from his earlier critical and independent position on war responsibility and Yasukuni towards adoption of what Kim calls the “Asahi-Democratic Party of Japan” line, by which he means a “normal country” great power posture. Such a reading of Takahashi's mildly expressed hope that the DPJ government might pursue reconciliation policies seems excessively harsh.
61 In an occasional circular to Associates of Japan Focus, No 2, March 2008.
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