There are people who do a job.
There are people who build a business.
And then there are people who—simply by showing up, month after month, year after year—create an industry.
One such man is my friend, Dan Harada. A Frenchman through-and-through but natrualized Japanese. A Tokyo institution, in fact.
For more than 30 years, he has led one of the most enduring private political briefings in Japan. It is a monthly off-the-record gathering that has quietly shaped how diplomats, corporate leaders, journalists, and foreign chambers of commerce understand Japanese politics. He was doing this long before “government affairs” was recognized as a legitimate profession in Japan.
I attended his inaugural breakfast briefing more than 25 years ago when I was running government affairs for Apple Computer. I’ve missed very few since.
Over time, this field became more crowded. Dozens of former Diet secretaries, bureaucrats from METI, MOF, and MOFA, and even former U.S. Ambassadors have joined the game establishing influence operations in Tokyo in an attempt to shape policy from outside the official apparatus.
Yet even in this evolving landscape, there remain very few professionals who can consistently deliver meaningful insight and strategic value in two languages, in two (or more!) blended business cultures, with the kind of cultural fluency that inspires trust at the highest levels.
Dan Harada has exemplified this. And he’s done it with style: sharply dressed, charming, and unmistakably French. We’ve worked in parallel for decades—technically competitors, but he never treated me as one. His warmth, generosity of spirit, and unwavering professionalism have left an indelible mark on me and so many others in our small but influential circle.
He is, without question, the grandfather of our community. I say this as someone who knows—because I’ve been standing just beside him for beyond three decades. Dan was wandering the halls and something of a curiousity even when I was working as a Diet Secretary some 40 years ago! That is really remarkable.
Today, Dan holds court with the same clarity, rigor, poise and political precision every month over a breakfast briefing. If you haven’t ever attended one of his briefings, benefitted from his insight, or simply admired the unique space he carved out in this rarefied world of Japanese policymaking, you owe it to yourself EVEN IF Japanese politics seems too esoteric, maybe not your cup of tea. It has grown to be an essential component of being familiar with Japan.
We don’t say thank you enough in this industry to those upon whose shoulders we stand. There are truly sterling individuals like Dan Harada who, in their own areas of specialization, cut the path, took the arrows, broke through the barriers that allow the rest of us to work more deeply, more impactfully in this intensely interesting country.
We should all have the sense of time and legacy, take the time to say ‘thank you’ to that individual who has reached-out to touched us and helped craft our careers.
They say that if you can count on one hand the number of friends you have, you are a rich person. I am beyond words grateful to Dan for his friendship, mentorship and for his character.
Are you familiar with “Tokyo on Fire”? Episodes are available on YouTube “Langley Esquire”: excruciatingly-gained insights sifted over 40 years in-country! Entertainingly presented.
“Japanese Politics One-on-One” episodes are on YouTube “Japan Expert Insights”.
If you gain insight from these briefings, consider a tailored one for your Executive Team or for passing-through-Tokyo heavyweights.
To learn more about advocacy in Japan, read our article “Understanding the Dynamics of Lobbying in Japan.”