The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ)  is pleased to announce the upcoming Book Break event on Thursday, May 11, 2023.

Book Break: "The Tiger of Tokyo: The Life and Times of Seigen Tanaka"
By Eiichiro Tokumoto

Thursday, May 11, 2023 from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm
(The talk will be in Japanese with English interpretation. No photography, no filming, and no audio-recording allowed)

Schedule:
Doors open at 6:00 pm.
Dinner is served from 6:15 pm.
The presentation starts from 7:15 pm.

Admission:
3,000 yen/ 4,000 yen (member/ non-member, including tax, a set dinner with a drink)
This Book Break will not be available for online attendance.

Menu: TBD with Coffee or Tea with One Drink.

Please sign up by email (front@fccj.or.jp) and pay by Tuesday, May 9th, 2023.

Venue:
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan
5F Marunouchi Nijubashi Building
3-2-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005
(https://www.fccj.or.jp/article/access-contact)

In the annals of Japan's 20th century history, the story of Seigen Tanaka (1906-1993), a controversial figure who led a checkered and tempestuous life, stands out as a rarity. While many Japanese viewed Tanaka as a patriot and hero, others labelled him a traitor and a political mercenary. But in the eyes of friends and foes alike, those who knew Tanaka acknowledged he was a man of extraordinary vitality and marveled at his unparalleled accomplishments.

Born in the late Meiji era in a village outside Hokodate, Hokkaido, Tanaka gained admittance to Tokyo Imperial University, where he became radicalized, quickly rising to become chairman of the Japan Communist Party at the young age of 23. As a hot-blooded youth, Tanaka strived to foment revolution through bloody armed struggle with the police - which would soon land him in prison for 11 years. Severely traumatized over her son's criminal activities, Tanaka's mother committed suicide. Her death would shock Tanaka into making a complete break with communism, and by the end of World War II, Tanaka had made a complete about-turn, re-emerging as a right-wing, anti-communist activist. Secretly summoned for an audience with Emperor Hirohito, he subsequently dispatched a phalanx of gangsters to attack leftist demonstrators who had converged on the Imperial Palace.

Tanaka later entered the oil business, negotiating for rights with royal families in the Middle East and major petroleum firms, successfully securing petroleum concessions for his resource-poor country. In his final years, Tanaka became an environmental activist who devoted himself to developing forms of renewable energy such as solar power, and to the reform of extreme, profit-for-its-own-sake capitalism.

Among Tanaka's friends were such personages as Kazuo Taoka, godfather of Japan's largest underworld syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi; Archduke Otto von Habsburg of Austria, the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne; Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping; and Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich August von Hayek.

Through years of extensive research and interviews with people who both respected and detested Tanaka, Tokumoto has produced a fresh and revealing portrait of the enigmatic fixer who earned for himself the nickname The Tiger of Tokyo. The book was published by Bungeishunju in August 2022 in Japanese.
(https://books.bunshun.jp/ud/book/num/9784163915302)

Tokumoto is author and journalist living in Tokyo. Among his other works in Japanese is "The Emperors' Files (エンペラー・ファイル)" published by Bungeishunju in 2020.

Doors open at 6:00 pm. Dinner is served from 6:15 pm. The presentation starts from 7:15 pm.

Menu: TBD/ Coffee or Tea with One Drink. Book Break charges are 3,000 yen/ 4,000 yen (members/ non-members) per person.

FCCJ members can sign up at the reception desk. Reservations cancelled less than 72 hours in advance will be charged in full.

Non-members can reserve at the reception desk by email (front@fccj.or.jp). Payment is in advance till Tuesday, May 9th, 2023.
No refund is available unless the event is cancelled by FCCJ.

This Book Break will not be available for online attendance.

Attendees with food restriction should inform the reception desk (front@fccj.or.jp) three days before the event.

We kindly ask for your cooperation with Covid-19 prevention measures at the reception. Thank you.

https://www.fccj.or.jp/event/book-breaks
Library, Archives & Workroom Committee