In 1999, responding to international concerns about the sexual exploitation of children, the Japanese Diet voted unanimously to ban child prostitution and child pornography. Two years later, in the wake of 9/11, Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet radically shifted government counterterrorism policy toward new military solutions, and away from an earlier emphasis on law enforcement. Although they seem unrelated, these two policies reveal the unintended consequences of attempts to enforce international norms at the national level.

In Think Global, Fear Local, David Leheny posits that when states abide by international agreements to clamp down on transnational crime and security concerns, they respond not to an amorphous international problem but rather to more deeply held and proximate fears.

Although opponents of child prostitution and pornography were primarily concerned about the victimization of children in poor nations by wealthy foreigners, the Japanese law has been largely used to crack down on "compensated dating," in which middle-class Japanese schoolgirls date and sometimes have sex with adults. Many Japanese policymakers viewed these girls as villains, and subsequent legal developments have aimed to constrain teenage sexual activities as well as to punish predatory adults. Likewise, following changes in the country's counterterrorism policy, some Japanese leaders have redefined a host of other threats—especially from North Korea—as "terrorist" menaces requiring a more robust and active Japanese military.

Drawing from sources as diverse as parliamentary debate records and contemporary film and literature, Leheny uses these two very different cases to argue that international norms can serve as political tools, allowing states to enhance their coercive authority.

David Leheny is Henry Wendt III '55 Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. He is the author of The Rules of Play: National Identity and the Shaping of Japanese Leisure, also from Cornell.

Insightful social science is rarely such fun. Think Global, Fear Local reveals how broadly accepted global norms against child prostitution and terrorism get transformed by anxiety-ridden Japanese policy makers into powerful weapons used to attack peripheral, though admittedly vexing, domestic demons. Leheny's wry wit and Runyonesque characterizations make this a delicious romp through the back alleys of contemporary Japan in the quest to learn how 'good norms go bad.' Read this book; you won't be disappointed.

Kay Warren, Brown University:

David Leheny's brilliant book shows how global norms are transformed in Japan by officials in the law enforcement and security fields who seek expanded state powers to target national problems and offer credible solutions. This analysis reveals the cultural politics through which solutions resonate with and amplify local constructions of threats, anxieties, villains, and scapegoats. Leheny's fascinating analysis at the interface of political science and anthropology makes a compelling case for constructionist approaches to transnationalism.

Takashi Inoguchi, Chuo University:

David Leheny's book vividly illustrates how vague and not-so-vague fear is pervasive in post-Cold War and post-9/11 Japanese society.