Join UBC Centre for Japanese Research in the book talk – The Iconoclast: Shinzō Abe and the New Japan with the author Tobias Harris, in conversation with the CJR Co-Director Yves Tiberghien (Professor at UBC Political Science). We will take a deeper look at the life and career of Shinzō Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan.
Event Page on CJR Website.
Location:
The event will be hosted via Zoom. Participants will receive a link to access the event 24 hours prior to the event via email. Please register.
Registration:
Click here to register.
*If you do not receive the event link 24 hours prior to the event, please email Saya Soma at sayasoma@mail.ubc.ca.
About the Author Tobias Harris
Tobias Harris is a Japanese politics analyst at Teneo Intelligence, the political risk arm of the strategic consultancy Teneo. His first book – THE ICONOCLAST: SHINZŌ ABE AND THE NEW JAPAN – was published in 2020. From 2006-2007 Tobias worked on the staff of Keiichiro Asao, at that time a member of the upper house of the Japanese Diet and shadow foreign minister for the Democratic Party of Japan. He earned an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor’s degree in Politics and History from Brandeis University. Tobias has also conducted graduate research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, from 2011-2012, at the Institute for Social Science at the University of Tokyo as a Fulbright scholar.
Tobias has written about Japanese politics for publications including the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs and regularly provides on-air analysis for CNBC, Bloomberg, and other networks. He was the Fellow for Economy, Trade, and Business at Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA from 2014-2020.
About the Book The Iconoclast: Shinzō Abe and the New Japan
Shinzo Abe entered politics burdened by high expectations: that he would change Japan. In 2007, seemingly overwhelmed, he resigned after only a year as prime minister. Yet, following five years of reinvention, he masterfully regained the premiership in 2012 and, until his resignation in 2020, dominated Japanese democracy as no leader had done before.
Abe inspired fierce loyalty among his followers, sidelining rivals with his ambitious economic programme and support for the security and armed forces. He staked a leadership role for Japan in a region being rapidly transformed by the rise of China and India, while carefully preserving an ironclad relationship with Trump’s America.
The Iconoclast tells the story of Abe’s meteoric rise and stunning fall, his remarkable comeback, and his unlikely emergence as a global statesman who laid the groundwork for Japan’s survival in a turbulent century.
