Beginning in the 1980s dozens of books based on 'Protocols of the elders of Zion' began to appear in Japanese bookstores and sold millions of copies. Some have understood this as sublimated anti-Americanism, others have traced antisemitism back to Japan's World War II alliance with Germany. The author believes that antisemitic ideas have played a deleterious role in the history of modern Japan, a role that continues to be played out