The Keys to the Kingdom; The FS-X Deal and the Selling of America's Future to Japan

New York: Doubleday, 1994. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xvii, [1], 318 pages. Notes. Index. Inscribed by author on half-title page. The author covered national affairs for The National Journal for a number of years. He conducted more than two hundred and fifty interviews in Japan and the United States and worked through thousands of pages of documents, including some obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. His journalism has been published in the The Washington Post, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, the New York Observer, and Rolling Stone. Derived from the Library Journal. 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.