The Keys to the Kingdom

August 1, 1994
The already rancorous U.S.-Japan trade relationship was exacerbated in the late '70s, when research entrepreneur Ryozo Tsutsui launched a campaign to revive his country's once-great aircraft industry through an experimental fighter called the FS-X. Shear's well-researched study reports on the advocacies of and oppositions to codevelopment of the plane both in Tokyo and Washington, punctuated by Tsutsui's blunt declaration that Japan could build a better fighter faster and more cheaply alone. American officials began to understand that the Japanese were threatening to surpass the U.S. in aircraft manufacture, one of the last areas of American high-tech dominance. Yet the U.S. handed over to Japan massive amounts of sophisticated aircraft technology. Freelance journalist Shear recounts in detail the complex, appalling story of why and how this was allowed to happen.

November 15, 1994
Shear, the author of articles on many of the thematic components of this book-technology, aerospace, and international affairs-relates the story of how Japan got hold of the biggest secrets of the U.S. aerospace industry, the only industry in which they have not yet beaten us soundly in world markets. Regardless of the risk to the U.S. economy, the Japanese were given the technology that would make their FS-X (Fighter Support Experimental) plane a reality. The book opens with a description of Hirohito's funeral, at which then-President Bush was in attendance. This period of transition, Shear asserts, heralded the end of an era of Japanese traditionalism, with a young "salaryman emperor" taking over. What ensues is a story about deals made in hot tubs, Japanese playboys, incredibly stupid politicians, and good old American greed. It makes for entertaining reading for those interested in scandal on the global scale. Recommended for business collections.-Lisa K. Miller, Paradise Valley Community Coll. Lib., Phoenix

September 1, 1994
FS-X stands for Fighter Support Experimental, Japan's answer to the fighter plane. Though it was thought that Japan would settle for an upgraded F-l6, the U.S. soon realized that Japan desired a more advanced piece of technology. Shear's thesis, in part, is that our government gave away much state-of-the-art aviation technology in trying to placate the Japanese and draw them closer to us. The Japanese threat was simple enough: if the U.S. provided no help, the Japanese would go ahead and build the plane on their own. Shear, though, argues that they did not have the capability to do so--until U.S. myopia, greed, and a whole lot of stupidity entered the picture. And he seems generally right. He provides some useful accounting of Japan's industrial history, too, though one wonders if he paints the Americans as a bit too stupid, and the Japanese as operating from motives far too honorable. ((Reviewed September 1, 1994))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1994, American Library Association.)